The Children and Them
by yeahishipdrarry
Summary: When Draco Malfoy meets Harry Potter – recently widowed with four children in his care – things start out very differently. Is this how life could have been? And what is going on with the mysterious animal attacking small children? SLASH HP/DM
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, and thank you for starting to read my story! This is going to be a SLASH fiction and if you don't like that then don't read this :) I don't know how long this is going to be but I have finished about seven chapters already and I am just getting started. So enjoy and PLEASE review!**

**UN BETA'D BTW.**

**Longer Summary: When Draco Malfoy meets Harry Potter – recently widowed with four children in his care – things start out very differently. Is this how life could have been? And what is going on with the mysterious animal attacking small children?**

**- Chapter One -**

_October 16th _

The man who was struggling along with four children, clearly couldn't cope, thought Draco as he sat on the play-park bench. Draco himself prided in being able to look after Scorpius though his internal voice was telling him to be fair – it was probably a lot harder with _four_. The man let his children run off to the play-area, except the girl balanced on his hip, and then he swivelled round to find somewhere to sit. That was when Draco realized that he knew the man well, it was Harry freaking Potter.

Ah, yes, he had heard all about Harry in the newspapers recently and he found himself actually feeling sorry for the man. Harry's wife, Ginny, or the Weaslette as he always thought of her, had recently died leaving him to bring up their three children and one adopted child. The adopted child was the son of his old Professor Lupin and, if rumours were indeed true, also the son of his cousin. Albus would probably be around four making, Lily two, James five and Teddy about six.

Then suddenly those amazing green eyes locked on his and they just stared at each other for a full second. God, he missed those eyes from when he was at school, God, he missed Harry Potter. Pansy was always going on, every single time she saw Potter's picture in Witch Weekly, about how beautiful those eyes were. Draco always took that opportunity to remind her that she was happily married to Blaise and should keep her eyes (and thoughts, preferably) to herself.

Now he realized that Harry was walking towards him with the small girl – gosh she was cute – and his heart flipped. He wasn't really sure if he was quite ready to see Potter after all this time. But now Potter was only a few metres away and looked like he was about to say something, so Draco seemingly had no choice.

"Hello, Malfoy, mind if I sit there?" Harry asked Draco with a small smile, which Draco at once noticed looked rather weary.

"Be my guest," he replied with a small smile.

Harry sat down with the girl, Lily he supposed, on his lap and they both watched their children. Albus and Scorpius, Draco noticed, and he was sure Harry did too, were playing very happily together on the see-saw. James and Teddy seemed to be building a sandcastle in the sandpit which looked a little like Hogwarts. Eventually Draco plucked up the courage to say something.

"Sorry to hear about your loss, Potter," he said.

At once he regretted saying those words as the tears formed in Harry's eyes and then slid down his cheeks. His wife had died less than a couple of months back so Draco had rubbed salt into a raw wound. As another tears ran down towards his lips Draco sighed heavily, angry with himself for making things awkward.

"Shit, Potter, I'm really sorry for mentioning that, I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry," Draco said quietly. Before he knew quite what he was doing he had stretched out a hand and placed it on top of the one on his daughter's back. There was a moment of pregnant silence before he awkwardly removed his hand and looked back at Scorpius who was now on the swings with Albus.

The baby suddenly giggled a little and Harry adjusted her on his lap but she reached out her arms for Draco. Draco gently pushed her arms down a little and said, "No, Lily, Draco doesn't want to hold you."

"Mama!" Lily said in a very young voice, "Mama!"

Sensing that tears were welling up in Harry's eyes again Draco said, "Can I hold Lily for a bit, Potter?"

When Harry had left for the park that morning he had never suspected that he would be handing over his baby _willingly_ to an ex-death eater. But as Draco took Lily and began to cradle her in his arms he realized that actually it was alright to hand her over. Draco seemed to actually be quite good at holding children and she giggled when he lifted her up and down in the air. They sat in silence for a little longer before Lily started clamouring to be put down so she could go somewhere.

Draco set her gently down on the floor but she wasn't finished with him as she grabbed his hand. Lily pulled him gently by the hand and Draco took a quick look at Harry who just shrugged and nodded before letting himself be led away. Lily led him over to the swings where he lifted her into the special baby one. Then Draco slowly began to swing her back and forth whilst she laughed with delight and Harry watched. As Harry slowly walked over Draco was glad that Lily was too young to properly understand that her mother was dead.

Draco smiled at Harry who sat down on the normal swing the other side of Lily and just watched them together. Then, when it looked like he was just about to say something, their two boys ran over laughing happily.

"Daddy! Daddy!" cried Scorpius happily, "Can Albus, James and Teddy come over tonight for tea with their Daddy and sister? Please?"

"Now Scorpius as much as I would love to invite them all over I'm sure that they can't come over tonight because they are probably busy. Maybe some other time," Draco said, thinking that Harry probably wouldn't want to come over to his house.

"Oh, please Daddy," Albus cried, "_Mummy would have let us go over to Scorpius' house_..."

Harry looked upset again and so as to save the situation he said quickly, "Why don't you go play a little more and we'll make an arrangement between us alright?"

Once the two had run off Harry started to speak saying, "I'm sorry about my son, Draco, it's just he hasn't seen any of his friends in a couple of months because... you know. Also he tends to get a little over-excited, I'm sorry," Harry apologized.

"It's fine Harry. You know I don't mind if you and your children come over tonight... if you want that is. I mean I get it if you're busy or something but the offer most certainly stands. Scorpius hasn't made many friends since I pulled him out of nursery when Astoria..."

"Did she leave you?" Harry asked.

"She died, Potter, she died about a year ago," Draco said quietly. "I've been raising Scorpius ever since. Look, I think both our sons could do with having some fun tonight, so you really should come on over."

"Well, if you're sure..."

"I am 100% positive," Draco replied with a smile. "I'll open the floo network at around six tonight then you can all come through. Just make sure you say Malfoy Manor and then you'll be able to come through the fireplace. Is that alright then?"

They parted their separate ways at the park, both with very excited children, who couldn't wait for that night. Teddy and James wouldn't stop giggling about some joke between themselves from the park and Albus insisted on carrying Lily all the way back to the car on his back, even though he wasn't that great at walking himself. When they were finally all strapped into the car – which took at least ten minutes – Harry drove off back to their house in Godric's Hollow.

At home the normal chaos when they had to go anywhere at all ensued as per usual. For a start the three boys were all ridiculously filthy from their play at the park so the quickest thing to do was to get them all in the bath. That sounded very simple and with one maybe it would have been but there were three young boys.

For a start the call of "bath time boys" roughly translated in kid's language to "hide and seek". James had managed to somehow get up into the attic _and_ hide the ladder so Harry had to make one out of Lily's wooden rocking horse. This resulted in him falling to the floor a fair few times because she had kind of forgotten that rocking horses tend to rock. When he had finally got James in the bath he just had the task of getting the other two into the bath as well.

The next one he found was in his own bedroom somehow on top of the four-poster bed canopy. Teddy had somehow managed to get up there and it didn't take him as long from there to find Albus. He had decided to go for the brilliant hiding place that was under his duvet and it took Harry _such_ a long time to find _him_. When all three were in the bath more trouble led from there onwards. He had made a pretty stupid mistake by letting James pour the bubble bath in the bath which meant there were about ten metres of foam covering the bathroom.

Harry had left them to get into the bath together but when he came in two minutes later he couldn't actually see either three of the boys. He could however hear their giggling as they splashed about and with a groan he fought his way through the foam. Several reducing charms later and he found himself able to actually see two raven haired boys and one with brown hair. They had a brilliant system once they actually got to this point however which he employed that night.

Harry would squirt shampoo on his, James and Teddy's hands and then they would each rub it into the person in front of them's hair. Then they would rinse the hair of the one in front of them before applying the conditioner as well. Then they would do a final rinse and voilà, three boys with perfectly washed hair. Eventually they would all get out of there and then would be the infamous towelling session.

All three boys would be lifted out of the bath by Harry, as they were on this particular night, and then they would run. Lily waddled out of the nursery as Albus ran past starkers and giggled when she saw her father run by seconds later. As she fell over onto her bottom, a wet-haired Teddy in just his pyjama bottoms, came running by. He stopped briefly and then grabbed her onto his back in an awkward piggy back and began to run round and round again.

"RIGHT! If you are not all in the boy's bedroom by the time I count to three then no one is going tonight! One... two... three!"

As he stepped into the boy's bedroom James ran past him into it too meaning that they were all finally in one place. But unfortunately this was by no means over because now there was the horrible ordeal of deciding what to wear.

"I'm wearing my Chudley Canons Quidditch Robes!" insisted James.

"I'm wearing my Dobby clothes!" insisted Teddy.

"I'm wearing my Merlin Halloween Outfit!" insisted Albus.

"Princess Clothes!" insisted Lily.

When the clock struck seven they all were lined up by the fireplace dressed up as themselves. Harry was dragging a comb through the boy's hair and finally they all looked presentable enough to be taken out. Harry kissed each of them on the head and then said, "We're going to go through one at a time. I shall go through with Teddy then with Albus then James and Lily. Got it?"

It took five minutes to get them all through to the other side and by the time the last two got through the Floo Draco was full out laughing at them.

"Well, now that you've had your daily exercise, Potter, what do you say that we all get down to actually having some food?"

The dining room that Harry had been expecting them to eat in was the not the one they eventually did. Draco led them all through to a much smaller dining room where they were all comfortably seated round a circular table. Then the house elves appeared and Harry knew at once who had organized the food for the evening, and who had organized very little.

Plates of jelly, ice cream, cakes, biscuits, sweets and other such children's food and then there were a couple of salads, potatoes and sensible foods. The younger ones of course went mad over the unhealthy food at once with shouts of glee and began talking loudly. Harry cast a muffliato around him and Draco so they could actually hear themselves think and maybe talk too.

"So, Potter, how come you don't get a little more help with the children from the Weasley's or someone? And why is Teddy living with _you_ anyway?"

"Well, the Weasley's all have their own lives and they don't need me constantly reminding them of their loss of... Ginny. Also they look after the children when I have to work so I would never ask anything more of them. I mean I would maybe ask for a little more help from Ron and Hermione but they have two children of their own and they live in Australia now with Hermione's parents. Teddy's living with me because Andromeda is pretty ill now so I said I would take care of him. He's been living with me on and off since he was six months old and fully since he was three. I wouldn't let him stay with anyone else for the world."

Draco nodded and then asked, "Do you want some wine Potter?"

"That'd be nice," Harry said removing the muffliato charm to find out what their children were talking about. As Draco was pouring the wine for Harry, Scorpius chose that moment to ask an awkward question.

"Harry, do you love my Daddy?"

"W-what?" he stammered back, caught off guard by the question, whilst Draco spilt the red wine all over the table cloth.

"I love Albus, I love James, I love Teddy, I love Lilly and they all love me back. So do you love my Daddy?" asked Scorpius with a small smile.

"I..."

"Scorpius, hurry up and eat your food and then you can go show your friends the cool toys you got for your birthday."

When the children were gone in a whirlwind of hyperactivity later the two men went through to the Living Room to continue their drinks. It was a pleasant conversation that they all shared until they both decided their children needed to get some sleep. When they reached Scorpius' bedroom they found all five children passed out asleep in Scorpius bed, tucked up together.

"You know, Potter, I wouldn't mind if you just left the children to sleep here tonight. You can stay in one of the spare rooms if you like but I just think it would be easier than waking them all up and then trying to extract them all from the bed. What do you say?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. You wouldn't believe how crabby Lily can get when she's woken up before she wants to be..."

Harry was led from the room by Draco and along the corridor by him until they reached a pretty nice room. "There are spare pyjamas inside the chest of drawers as well as everything else you could need in the bathroom. Also if there is anything you want during the night then call from Winky and she'll appear and help you. So... good night then Potter..."

"Good night, Malfoy," he replied with a small smile.

Harry changed into a pair of the silver pyjamas in the chest of drawers – it didn't escape his notice they matched Draco's eyes – and then lay down to bed. They were silk pyjamas, he had silk sheet, the bed had been warmed before he got into it and so it took him a matter of seconds to fall asleep. With a small smile to himself he snuggled underneath the duvet and fell asleep very deeply.

_October 17th_

When Harry awoke the next morning he remembered at once that it was Sunday but couldn't for the life of him remember where he was. He looked up at the huge bay window and knew from that it must be about six because the sun was just coming up. But if it was only about dawn then why had he woken up? The answer came in the form of a loud giggle from the doorway and Harry sat up at once.

In the doorway were all five of the children laughing together but trying their hardest to keep quiet. "Morning Daddy!" shrieked Albus running and jumping into the bed. Seconds later and he was buried in a pile of children including Scorpius.

There was a sharp laugh from the doorway and Harry managed to manoeuvre the children so he could see the doorway. Standing there, in just a pair of green silk pyjama bottoms was Draco laughing at him. He walked over to the bed and said, "Alright kids we need to leave Potter to actually get up and you can all come downstairs and I'll make you all pancakes."

Four out of the five kids jumped off the bed and started to run towards the door but Teddy, the oldest and therefore the wisest, asked, "Mr Malfoy, why do you call my Daddy "Potter"? His name is Harry, why don't you call him that?"

"Potter and I have always called each other that. It's like our own nicknames for each other or something," Draco said with a smirk at Harry. Harry smirked back.

"So... can we call you Malfoy and Potter then?" asked Albus with a confused look on his face.

"We-"

"From now on we'll call each other by our first names, alright guys?" Harry said with a laugh. "Now you all go follow _Draco_ and get some breakfast then I'll get up and dressed."

"Come on you lot," Draco said with a smile, "_Harry_, there are some spare clothes in the drawers if you want to take whatever you need. See you downstairs."

Harry watched as he hoisted Lily up onto his hip, and then Scorpius grabbed his hand whilst the other boys all clamoured around him. He chuckled to himself as he heard his children asking incessant questions to poor Draco. Harry opened the drawers to see what there was and found basically brand new clothes. It was lucky, he thought to himself, that he was basically the same size as Draco was.

**I would genuinely like to know what you thought of this so please review! Another chapter will be up soon enough but please**

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	2. Chapter 2

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**- Chapter 2 -**

When he was dressed in some dark blue jeans, an emerald green button down shirt and some random snitch socks he found. He padded down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, following the sounds of laughter. In the kitchen he found his children sitting there hanging off Draco who was tossing pancakes. Harry felt tears welling up in his eyes, because he hadn't seen his children look so happy in such a long time. Suddenly it was all too much for Harry and he ran from the room in tears.

Harry slumped down in the hall with tears rolling down his cheeks and buried his face in his hands. He didn't hear Draco serving up the pancakes and then leaving the room to join him in the hall. Draco slumped down next to him and said, "You alright...Harry?"

"Y-yeah, just gets to me sometimes when I think that my children... don't have a mum any more," Harry stammered.

"I know loads of people probably have told you they know how you feel but they don't. Because even if they have gone through the same thing they aren't _you_ so they will never really know. I mean I have an idea, I lost my wife too, but I only have one child which must make it a lot easier. Take your time and when you're ready come and have breakfast; I'll make you pancakes too!"

Draco left Harry there to wipe his tears furiously from his cheeks before he re-entered the room. All of the children ran at him and leapt up at him whilst Scorpius asked loudly, "Why does Uncle Harry have red eyes?"

Harry not only noticed that he was now seemingly Scorpius' "uncle" but he was also a climbing frame. Draco answered before he could however; "Harry has hay fever, like you Scorpy."

He made sure that all the children eventually detached themselves from Harry and then steered the man to sit down. As all the children ran off, Harry said, "You know I don't usually eat breakfast, Draco, so you really don't need to make me pancakes..."

"You don't usually eat breakfast? Well that explains a lot. Harry, I know you are probably busy at the moment with four children but you need to keep eating. If you don't start taking care of yourself then you may find that you become unable to look after them. They need you, Harry, and they need you healthy."

So Harry allowed Draco to serve him up a pile of pancakes with syrup poured over them. Harry had to admit it did feel good to have someone else care for _him_ for a change. Harry had just finished eating them when suddenly a head appeared in the fireplace. "Sorry to interrupt, Mr Malfoy," he said spotting Draco standing near the fire place, "But I have been told by one of Mr Potter's elves that he is here at the moment. Can I speak with him urgently?"

"Healer Hawthorn, I'm here," Harry said getting up from the table and hurrying over to the fireplace. "What's wrong?"

"Healer Potter, good to see you. Unfortunately we have an emergency that we really need you to come in and sort out. Could you come in, in around ten minutes time?"

"I... I'll try..." Harry said as the man disappeared from the flames.

At once Harry jumped to his feet and started swearing under his breath pretty loudly. "Draco, thanks for everything but I have to go find a babysitter... ah, Molly and Arthur are in France... George is away in America... Hermione and Ron are living in Australia... shit shit shit..."

"Harry, for God's sake calm down now, _I _will look after your children for you whilst you go save the world again. Seriously Harry, you can trust me," Draco said placing a hand on either shoulder.

"No, it's fine, you've got Scorpius to look after as well," Harry said quickly but Draco could see the panic flashing in Harry's eyes. The boy looked completely hopeless and Draco knew that at any other time in his life he would have asked Ginny. But now she was gone. He was only twenty two like Draco and everything was new and hard. They weren't in school any more.

"Seriously, Harry. You leave the kids with me and go off and sort out your case, alright?"

Harry worked as a healer on the Dark Hexes, Enchantments and Attacks by Creatures ward in St Mungo's Hospital. It was a pretty busy ward unfortunately and he walked in the sub-section which looked after children. It horrified him that every single time a child came in someone could do something that terrible to a child. But considering he had four children himself he felt like it was his duty to protect children. A lot of the parents trusted him a lot more when they saw him on the ward than if it had been any old Healer.

"Alright, I promise that I'll be back as soon as I can be," Harry said pulling on his coat at the same time. "Thank you so much for this Malfoy."

Harry stepped outside the house and at once he apparated straight into the hospital apparition point. You have to move quickly out of the apparition point or you'll end up getting landed on by the next person. Harry hurried away straight towards the lifts, thankful to be able to bypass the huge queue waiting for the information desk. He got into one of the huge gold lifts and at once said, "Floor Seven."

Inside the lift was none other than Dean Thomas who began to talk to him excitedly. "Alright, Harry?"

"Hey Seamus, hows the work going?" Harry asked.

"Brilliant Harry. We have almost found a cure for the brain damage suffered by Alice and Frank Longbottom. On a negative note this would also cure Gilderoy Lockhart but he has family in Australia who come and visit sometimes so he could go and live with them. But Severus Snape has been a big help. Anyway, I thought you didn't work Sundays?"

"I don't usually but apparently something big has come up so I had to hurry in," Harry said frowning slightly.

"Where've you left the kids?" Dean asked as they reached the sixth floor.

"You may not believe this – or may not want to believe this – but they're with Malfoy at the moment, Draco Malfoy. It seems that our children made friends at the play-park and then we had a "play date" yesterday. I ended up staying the night because my children fell asleep and then this morning when I got the emergency call he offered."

"Didn't see that one happening," Dean said.

The lift then reached the seventh floor and Harry left with a final smile at Dean and the promise to "catch up soon". Harry hurried up to the ward where he found loads of people rushing about and some panicking. Something pretty serious was happening today and he knew that he would not be returning home for quite a long time.

"Healer Potter!" called a man from the far corner who he quickly recognized as being Healer Hawthorn. As Harry ran across the room he found out what the source of the commotion was. Lying on the bed with gashes across his face – gashes from curses not physical – was a small boy of about eleven. The boy had bright green eyes, much like Harry's own, and he seemed to be fitting even as they watched. Suddenly Harry swung into action; he had to save this boy.

Harry shouted out suddenly, "Right we need a stabilising potion. We need blood replenishing potions. We need three tubs of blood clotting paste and I would also like diagnosis charms performed on him, every single one we know. Now!"

Harry hurriedly started collecting up some of the notes from the end of the bed and started reading through them anxiously. He read the notes on how the incident had happened first;

_Boy, Harvey Quebecker, 11, was playing in a field near his house when he was approached by some creature. His mother saw from the top window of her house the creature approach. When later questioned his mother claims that she should have been able to describe the creature exactly but when it looked at her she forgot everything. The creature then proceeded to torture Harvey with magic whilst it kept it's eyes fixed on the mother, Caroline, transfixing her to the spot. She "woke up" about half an hour after the whole ordeal had started to find her son lying in a pool of his own blood._

_Injuries: Three (3) gashes to the side of his face from a claw or talon. Internal injuries, minor, but problems with breathing have been identified. Broken ribs, four (4). Also minor head injury and currently confused as to his whereabouts, delirious._

Harry looked down at the green eyed boy with a sick feeling in his stomach. When the potions arrived seconds later he tried to open the boys mouth but he just thrashed about screaming, "No, no, bad cat, bad cat!"

Harry tried to pour the potions down his throat but eventually it was clear he wasn't going to swallow them with ease. Quickly he called out, "Someone get me a sedative in a syringe and two other syringes too!"

Seconds later he was holding a syringe with blue liquid inside which he plunged into the poor boys young arm. The boy howled in pain and a woman he assumed to be the mother began to sob harder but Harry knew that in the end this would all be for the best. The boy's eyes rolled back in his head then and he stopped struggling leaving Harry with time to finally administer the potions he needed. He picked up the small vials and filled a syringe with both the blood replenishing and stabilising potions. Then he pushed that slowly in after finding a suitable vein near the boy's elbow.

A witch waved her wand over the boy and for a second everyone held their breath as nothing happened. Then they all heart a very faint beat that sounded as if it was slowly faltering.

"Alright, he's stable for now but we need to find out exactly what the problem is as soon as possible. Could someone take Mrs Quebecker off to have a soothing drink please and explain what just happened? And a quick check over for her to may be advisable. Healer Johnson you go."

Everyone split off now the immediate danger was over and for the first time Harry took a proper look at the boy. He noticed that there was something weeping from the facial wounds even though they were now sealed. It was a yellow pus that was seeping down his face which made Harry wonder if there was something that he had missed. He took a small sample and then as he was just brushing back the boy's hair to check his pupil dilation he noticed something else.

Caught onto his eyebrow was a hair. This may have seemed very ordinary but the hair was not a human hair at all. It looked, if Harry hadn't have known any better, like a pet hair but he did know better. It was too long to be a normal animal, like a dog or something's, hair. Harry pulled out a small vial which he always kept on his person and then placed the hair inside it. He knew exactly who he should take the hair to, but first he needed to get someone onto analysing the pus he had also collected.

Harry walked over to where Healer Hawthorn was standing with another Healer, Healer Megan Jones. They were looking over something. He remembered Megan from his school days when she was in his year, in Hufflepuff. She was a brilliant Healer and always the first one to find out what was wrong with a patient. She was an expert an analysing things so she was definitely the one to go to for this pus.

"Hey Megan!" he called as he walked over, "Are you doing a specific task at the moment or are you free to do me a little favour?"

"Hey, Harry! I'm doing pretty much nothing at the moment just waiting for my next job so go for it. What's going on?"

"I re-examined Harvey's face a few minutes ago and found a bit of yellow pus seeping out of the wound, but not normal pus. So I was wondering if you could analyse the pus, maybe give us an idea of where it came from or something."

"Sure thing, I'll owl you when I get news. I assume you're shooting off somewhere?" she asked with a grin.

"Yeah," he replied distractedly.

Harry left the ward then after handing over the vial full of pus and then he took the lift down all the floors. Harry travelled from one Floo Gate through to one in the Ministry of Magic where he knew he would find the two people he needed to speak to. He often visited these two friends of his when he needed help to do with animals.

Opening the brown door he walked inside to be almost flown into by three dragons, very small ones. At that moment Hagrid came lumbering past and with a quick spell had ropes round each of their necks like harnesses. "'Allo, 'Arry!" he said happily and loudly.

"Hagrid, good to see you," Harry said, "How have you been?"

"I've been great, 'Arry, how are you and the kids?"

"Their fine Hagrid. If you're free one weekend you should really come round and see them. They miss seeing you as much because we can't have met up since... well... since Ginny..."

"No, we haven't. I'll drop round soon as I can, once I got these pesky Dragons under control. Where are the kids today?"

"Er... at a friends. Actually Hagrid I need to speak to you and Luna about some official business... is there somewhere we can go and talk with her?" he asked.

At that moment Luna came running over, or rather skipping and at once threw her arms round Harry, pulling him into a hug. "Harry, it's been such a long time since I last saw you. But I sense that you are here on official business so catch-ups will have to wait."

Since the war ended, Luna had become a lot less dreamy and Harry definitely liked her better. When Hermione and Ron went back to Australia, a couple of weeks after Ginny's death, Luna had been the one to keep him going, to keep his feet on the ground. He would always be thankful for the amount she had helped him and someday hoped he would be able to repay the favour. As they walked into the small office together Luna gestured for him to sit down as she and Hagrid sat down on the other side of the desk.

Hagrid and Luna had become sort of a partnership after the war. They were regularly approached by other countries because their expertise was some of the best in the world. Luna had managed to prove the existence – with Hagrid's help – of some creatures which had never before been heard of. Since that point many cases which had been confusing Healers at St Mungo's and Hospitals across the world had now been solved with antidotes. From that moment onwards they had gained a reputation that most animal experts could only dream of.

"So Harry, what can we do for you then?" asked Luna when they were all comfortably seated.

"I had a case in earlier with a young boy who got attacked by some currently unidentified creature. Now we have someone working on the pus that is currently being emitted from the wounds but I also found a single animal hair. The hair may be useful in identifying the creature or even the vague type of creature."

"We'll definitely look into it," Luna said, whilst Harry handed over the single animal hair still contained inside the vial. "Now Harry tell us a little more about how life has been for you."

"It's been fine, everything's fine as usual-"

"Erm, Harry do you really think we're going to believe you if you say that? Harry we know it must be really hard for you, losing Ginny and we want to know _honestly_ how you and the kids are holding up."

"It's hard but I always knew it would be. I miss her a lot. But I'm getting along. Look this weekend are you both free? I really need to get back to my children now so how about I owl you then we can have a proper catch up later, alright?"

Hagrid particularly looked slightly worried by the idea of not talking then but they both agreed and Harry left their office wondering how Draco had gotten along with his children. However before he could find the floo gate to floo back home to his children there was an owl that swooped through the ministry and after a quick circle around the atrium dove down towards Harry with a letter clutched tight in it's beak.

Harry let the brown owl land on his outstretched arm and then took the letter from it's beak. As the bird flew away from him he opened the letter with a swipe of his fingernail along the seal.

_Dear Harry,_

_We have news on the pus front so if you can head back here as soon as possible to discuss it then that would be great. Hopefully talk to you soon, owl me if you can't make it,_

_Healer Megan Jones_

**So that is the end of another chapter! I hope it was up soon enough for you :) and more will be up. Basically I am doing it so I am always five chapters ahead, so currently I have written chapter 7, hence the posting of chapter two :L**

**REVIEW ME PLEASE!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry! I can't believe it has been over two weeks since I last updated but there has been so much going on in my life! I have had exams; French and Music. French I unfortunately failed and my music I don't know yet... But anyway I am sure you don't care so here is the next chapter :)**

**- Chapter 3 -**

Harry knew that he really should be getting back to Draco and the kids but if the answer was simple then he could just finish the case today and his work would be done. So instead of flooing to Malfoy Manor – or apparating because the fireplace was probably locked – he instead flooed to work again. This time as he caught the lift up there was no one to talk to but it was alright because the ride was much shorter. It seemed a lot less accidents happen on a Sunday afternoon.

On the ward things seemed to be busier than the last time he was there and at once he worked out why. The boy, Harvey, was fitting pretty badly and there was now copious amounts of yellow pus pouring from his mouth. Harry at once clicked his fingers to change into his healer's robes before hurriedly stepping towards the action.

"Someone take her out!" he yelled pointing at the mother of Harvey, who was hysterically screaming and crying in the corner of the room. He barely registered a trainee Healer hurrying forwards to lead her away from there.

As he walked forwards he said, "Megan, why didn't you tell me to come quicker if the patient was acting like this?"

"He wasn't when I owled you! When I owled you he was absolutely stable and normal as could be in the situation. I just wanted to talk to you about what the pus tells us. But then after I sent the owl he suddenly started fitting, eyes rolling and pus kept pouring out of his mouth. But we can talk later!"

Harry tore of the boy's hospital gown when he saw how ill the boy looked so he could get better access and what he saw made him almost vomit. Something was moving about under Harvey's skin, something was pushing about against the skin, tight. Harvey screamed as if possessed when suddenly the creature burst through the skin and everyone froze for a second to stare at it. The creature was like a long earth worm but much fatter with yellow pus coating it and oozing from it's mouth and end. The creature began to head towards another person, a patient on the end bed in the ward, but Megan grabbed a large glass dome and slammed it over the creature.

Twenty minutes later and a man was pulling a white sheet over the poor boy's body. The creature was now dead, lying on the floor still with the dome fixed over it, until the Animal Specialists could come and take it away. Harry pulled off the gloves he'd been wearing threw them in the trash then clicked his fingers making the robes disappear. He swung the doors open and found himself face to face with the woman who had just lost her son, her Harvey.

By the door was Megan waiting to talk with him about the pus no doubt. But as the woman in front of him let out another guttural sob he said, "Megan we'll talk tomorrow, alright?"

Megan nodded and left him to head towards the woman who he now remembered was called Caroline. "Caroline come here," he said quietly to the woman who could only be a few years older than he was.

Half an hour later and they were sitting in a small muggle café drinking Cappuccinos. Harry spoke, "I wish I could take away some of the pain for you Caroline. I have no idea how hard this must be for you."

"It's Harry Potter, right? You lost your wife the other month didn't you?" she asked. "I was sorry to hear that because you have four children to care for now don't you? You do know how it feels a little, Harry, if I may call you that, you know how it feels to lose someone you love. It doesn't matter what relation they are, or how old, losing someone you love always hurts the same way."

"It hurts a lot doesn't it, Caroline?" he said quietly.

"How old are you, Harry, if you don't mind me asking you?" she said quietly with a small smile.

"I am twenty two years old. I know it is not deemed polite of me to ask, as a true gentleman never asks a lady how old she is. But you can't be much older than myself?"

"I am thirty this year, but thank you for the compliment. Wait, you were serious? You really thought I was the same age as you, just about? My Harry, how on earth would I have had a son at eleven?" she asked laughing at the thought.

He laughed and then she eventually said, "Well I suppose Harry, I should be leaving now because there are many that I need to see now. I guess you also need to go back to your children because it must have been a long day for you. Thank you, Harry Potter."

"That's fine and I am sorry there wasn't more that I could do for you. I promise that the Aurors Office will be doing their best to solve this problem. But please don't be afraid to contact me, we should talk soon, if you wish."

They parted with a final smile at each other and then Harry checked his watch to look at the time. _Seven?_ He thought horrified at how quickly time had flown that day. _Draco has had the children all day!_ That thought he hurriedly apparated back outside Malfoy Manor and rang the doorbell. A house elf came to the door and Harry hurried past it with a small smile directed its way, shouting, "Draco?"

Draco appeared from the kitchen wearing an apron and half a bag of flour at least. "Ah, Harry, good to see you!"

"Draco, I am so sorry! I honestly didn't mean to be so long but then there was this massive problem and this poor young boy died-"

To his horror he felt tears welling up in his eyes at the thought of Alex and quickly turned his head slightly, hoping Draco had missed it. But Draco, being a Slytherin, of course noticed and at once said, "Hey, hey, calm down, it's fine, none of us minded today."

"I'm sorry, it was just hard seeing this poor little eleven year old with the same eyes as my sons and daughter, die."

Draco looked a little awkward for a second and then murmured, "Come through to the Kitchen and you can see your children again. We've been baking today."

In the kitchen he found the children also wearing tons of flour and a fair amount of chocolate round their mouths too. They were all giggling as they baked except for Lily who was sitting at a small table doing some colouring. She seemed to be drawing a picture of something and concentrating hard too because her tongue poked out from between her lips. Harry walked into the room and then said quite quietly, "Hello kids!"

Even though it was quiet he still managed to be heard by all the very noisy children who came running into his arms. Then James hurriedly rushed to find the plates and brought them laden with cakes, cookies and muffins. Harry took a cake but then the other boys insisted her tried the other things as well. Soon he was sat down with a cup of coffee and the cakes eating happily as Draco nattered on about their day. He liked listening to Draco talk because he seemed to genuinely care about what their children had done today – partly because he had done it all with them.

The excitement shone in all the children's eyes but he could see how tired they were as well. "Right, my dear children, we have most certainly outstayed our welcome so we must be on our way."

There were various complaints from the different children about having to leave or being left. But then Draco said, "Potter, come on the kids might as well stay here and I have food on the stove for us if you wish to eat here. What do you say?"

"No, no, no, we really must leave, you must be bored sick of my children and I?" he said.

"Potter, for God's sake can you just do what's good for you for once. You probably have not had lunch – see, your face says it all! – so for once you shall stay here with me. No arguments. Children you can all go to bed now then I shall make sure your father eats dinner."

Draco lifted Scorpius up onto one hip, and Harry lifted Lily and Albus onto his whilst James and Teddy followed behind. They arrived in the bedroom and Harry knew at once that Draco had been planning this all day because there were mattresses and duvets covered the floor. Once they were all changed into various pyjamas – Draco inexplicably also having spare girl pyjamas, which Harry made a mental note to ask him about – and settled in bed they kissed them all goodnight. All the boys insisted on a kiss from both the men.

Downstairs Draco ladled up the pasta dish and then set the table for two whilst Harry stood there feeling a little helpless. As they began to eat Harry began to question Draco about having the girl's pyjamas.

"Astoria died whilst giving birth to my daughter. Neither survived. I still have everything because I just can't bear to throw everything away from when she bought it all. It must have seemed slightly odd when I brought out those pyjamas didn't it?" he said with a bitter laugh.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a raw subject there," Harry apologized.

There was silence again for a few minutes until Harry suddenly blurted out, "How come you're being so nice to me, Draco? How come you're just letting my kids stay over and me too?"

"Honestly it has a lot to do with my son. He loves playing with your kids and he likes you too, or so he told me today when we were making cookies. This last year has been hard for Scorpius like the past two months have been hard for your children. If having your family over makes him happy then so be it."

They had both finished their meals by this point and after Harry declining more Draco sent their plates to wash themselves in the sink. Then Draco got to his feet and said, "Right, I am really tired, as I am sure you are too, so I'm going to bed now. I'll see you in the morning."

_October 18th_

Draco woke the next morning and found, when he walked downstairs, that the whole Potter Clan was dressed and ready to go. Harry was clearly dressed in his Healers robes and he smiled when Draco came into the kitchen.

"Draco, thank you so much for your excellent hospitality. I hope we can continue to arrange play dates for the children and I hope to see you soon. But I am afraid I must be off now as I have to get the children to Molly before work."

"Molly? Molly who?" Draco asked.

"Molly Weasley, Ron and Ginny's mother. They came back from France last night and they always take the children on Monday. She is in charge today, Arthur on Tuesday they different people each day until Friday."

"Look, Harry, they can stay here if-"

"NO! Sorry, that sounded rude. But this time we really must leave because Molly will want to see the anyway. Kind thought though, so thank you. Listen, if there is anything I can ever do to help you or Scorpius out then just let me know and I will do it at once. Bye, Draco."

Harry apparated all four children to the Burrow so he wouldn't be late again for work. He had been late quite a few times over the past few months and knew he was only getting away with it because everyone knew about Ginny and because he was the Wizarding World's Saviour. But he hated being treated like he was special so he planned to try and be on time whenever it was physically possible. Molly of course came running across the yard the second she heard the pop that meant they had apparated. Harry had to stifle a laugh when she almost tripped over a small chicken that was running across the yard... well, like a headless chicken.

"Oh Harry dear, you look so thin! Have you been eating properly? Do you want me to start making you meals for the evenings for you and the children?"

Harry knew that the Weasley's impromptu holiday to France had been because they were so devastated still over the death of their only daughter. He felt terrible every time he saw them still because he felt like they should be doing this to their daughter, not their sort of son-in-law. As Harry hugged Molly tight Arthur appeared with the same crooked smile that Ginny had inherited. Realizing that Molly was waiting for an answer he quickly said, "Oh, no, Mrs Weasley, I am actually eating very well, I just am naturally thin, you know that."

"Yeah," piped up Teddy, "Last night Draco made him eat some proper tea and the night before too."

Both Molly and Arthur looked at him surprised as the children chose that moment to all start chasing chickens around the yard. "Molly, Arthur, it's just we had a play-date with Scorpius, Draco's son, and then it ended up with us staying a little longer than intended-"

"Harry, it's fine you don't need to explain yourself to us. You know that whoever or whatever makes you happy makes us happy too. That's all we want and that is all that Ginny would have wanted as well."

"Thank you, Mrs Weasley. Now I am afraid I really must go or I'll be late to work again which is not a good idea. Thanks for taking the kids again and I promise I am trying to find a proper child minder."

"We don't mind Harry, we like seeing our grandchildren," Molly said.

"And Teddy too?" he questioned when she didn't say his name as well.

Arthur placed a gentle hand on the weary twenty two year olds shoulder – he looked so much more worn out that Ron and Hermione even though they were the same age – and said, "Harry, Molly and I have always considered him our Grandson much like you consider him your son. Now off you go."

It was moments like that when Harry realized exactly why it was that he loved the Weasley's so much. But he didn't have time to properly say anything more or he would be too late, so he just apparated away to work.

The ward was a lot quieter today, with no major new cases in for him to work on. He looked at the bed in which Alex had been lying yesterday with a small sigh but then stepped forwards to find Megan. He really needed to talk to her about what she knew about the pus that had been coming from the wounds. Unfortunately if this creature had attacked once then the chances are it will attack again.

He found Megan by one of their long time patients who had lost all his limbs due to a dark curse. The patient was currently going through treatment that was a little like Skelegrow. The only difference in fact was that it also grew back the muscles and anything else needed to make a new arm. She finished giving him all the potions he would need and then walked away with Harry into their small office so that they could talk about the Pus.

"Morning, Megan. You said yesterday that you had made some discoveries about the pus that came from Harvey's wounds?"

"Yeah, we found out quite a bit. It seems that there is some sort of parasite transferred by the pus which then forms itself into a giant worm like creature. The creature is still being dissected the by animal management squad but I know already that the creature is something similar to that seen inside cats and dogs, worms."

"Really? Then we need to find out more about them as soon as we can, don't we?"

The rest of the day flew by as they awaited results and Harry owled Hagrid and Luna to see if they had discovered anything yet. But nothing came back and nothing had been discovered yet from the dissection of the creature. At the end of the day he was exhausted and for a second he felt like crying. He wouldn't be able to go home like he used to and see his loving wife who would already have his children under control.

He picked the children up from Molly's house who tried to make them all stay. When the children were in bed that night he lay down on his double bed, clutching Ginny's pillow and just sobbed. When he had finished crying himself out he went to check on his little children. They may be without a mother now, and him without a wife, but that was no excuse. They needed him to be strong now because he was all they had.

He was just about to leave when he noticed that lying on the floor by Teddy's bed was a picture which Harry had no idea when it was taken. It was a picture of Ginny, Remus and Tonks from quite a few years ago. He had lost all these people and although Ginny wasn't his real mother she had been the closest thing too. Harry had lost his mother once but he couldn't imagine losing his mother twice. Though in his mind he had lost his father thrice.

**Thanks for reading and more up soon because it is the summer holidays starting tomorrow. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

_I know it has been way too long since I last updated but I hope this chapter really makes up for it. Also – and this is shameful pimping but – I have just updated my Albus Severus / Scorpius Hyperion slash story and I would love it if you would read that too! Thanks for still reading!_

**- Chapter 4 -**

October 24th

It had been a week since the original case had been brought in and Harry was spending the day at home with his children. He liked Sundays because they were the last day of the week, signalling a new beginning tomorrow. Today the children were building a giant papier mache dragon that filled up the entire dining room. It was green and so far half the empty room had been papier mache'd too. Harry laughed from where he was sat on the dining room table which had been pushed against the wall so as to provide more space. Teddy had just tripped over and fallen head first into the pot of glue and was now covered. A quick flick of his wand later and the boy was clean again.

"Harry?" came the voice from the fireplace and Harry jumped out of his skin. "Harry are you there or not?"

Harry jumped off the table and walked next door where he saw the fireplace had roared into life. The flames contained the head of Draco Malfoy who smiled when he saw Harry approaching. "Morning Draco, how are you?"

"Harry, why are you painted green?" asked Draco with a snort of laughter, not dignified like Harry assumed Malfoy's always were.

"Oh, my kids are making a papier mache dragon in the dining room," Harry answered.

Draco roared with laughter at Harry partly because that was the weirdest sentence he had ever heard. Then he said, "Harry, what on earth is papier mache?"

"Papier mache is a glue thing which you dip paper in to make something like a model," Harry replied. "So what can I do for you?"

"I was actually just going to ask if your kids wanted to spend the day with Scorpius at some point this week. He's been pestering me for days to invite you all over, but I get you have work. But instead of dropping them off to someone on your little rota maybe you could leave the kids with me? Tomorrow?"

"Are you free now?" asked Harry. "That sounds great and everything but maybe Scorpius would like to help build a dragon now? Then we can talk more about the kids meeting up..."

"Are you sure?" Draco said, "We wouldn't want to impose or anything but Scorpius is dying to see your kids again. Never thought I would see the day when any Malfoy child would want to see any Potter child..."

"I'm sure, Draco. Come over whenever you like but the sooner the better," Harry said with a grin.

"Like right now?"

"We're waiting..." Harry replied with a grin.

About two minutes later Harry was sitting upside down on the sofa when Draco came through the grate. Scorpius at once hurried through to find the other kids and they both heard squeals of excitement from them all. Draco then walked over to where Harry was and then flopped backwards over the sofa so he was sitting upside down too. "You're really something different, aren't you Harry? Why on earth are you lying upside down?"

"Got bored waiting and so I was trying to do a backwards roll over the sofa, but I kind of failed."

Draco began to laugh. It was weird, Harry thought as he watched the blonde laughing, but this didn't even seem to be the same man as he used to know. As they chatted away Harry couldn't stop staring at him until Draco said, "Alright, has Scorpius drawn on my face whilst I was sleeping or something?"

"No, nothing like that," Harry said. "Nothing at all in fact. Just thinking and zoned out."

Then Teddy walked into the room and at once both men saw that he had big tears rolling down his cheeks. Draco at once stood up and said, "If you want I'll go..."

"No, no, stay for a second," Harry said, "Teds what's wrong?"

"We were talking about our families," Teddy said, as he sat down on Harry's now upright lap and Draco sat down in an armchair, "And then Scorpius asked me who my real family were. Albus told them that we were his real family but then I realized that none of them are my real family, none of you. The only real family I have is Grandma and she is getting old now. What if she dies Harry? What if she dies like Ginny did? Why don't I have more family?"

Then he buried his face in Harry's chest as the arms wrapped round his tiny body. Harry made soothing noises in his ear and looked at Draco as if he had no idea what to do. Then suddenly Draco spoke up.

"Teddy? Dromeda is your Grandmother right? Then you do have more family!"

"Who?" mumbled Teddy looking up at Harry with his eyes glistening.

"Me! Dromeda is my aunt and your mother was my cousin. That makes us seconds cousins too. So you have me, Scorpius and my parents who must be your... well I don't quite know but we're related!"

For a minute Teddy sat with a thoughtful look on his cute face before saying, "Can I meet them?"

If Draco and Harry were completely honest they had not been expecting that as a response. For a minute they both just looked at each other wondering what they were thinking. "Draco, when would your family be free next?"

"Well, we're free all the time and neither mother nor father work so whenever would suit you..."

"Tonight? What are you doing tonight?"

"Well Scorp and I were just going to slob about for a bit but if you are suggesting tonight then we are free. And I happen to know my parents are doing nothing because I called over there last night. So would tonight suit well?"

"Yes!" breathed Teddy excitedly and Harry knew there was no way he could turn him down; not that he had been intending to. "Please Daddy, can we please have them over tonight? I really want to meet my other family, please?"

"Of course, Teds, of course," Harry said.

Teddy at once grabbed Harry and pulled him into a hug which Harry reciprocated. Then he looked at Draco, his new found relative, and suddenly he was being hugged too. Then Teddy ran off and from their room they could hear him telling Scorpius how they were related. They both laughed as they could hear the children talking over-excitedly. Then Harry turned to Draco.

"Dromeda is coming over tonight as well, I hope you don't mind?" he said with a small smile.

"No, that's fine, the more the merrier, right?" he said with a giant grin on his handsome face.

Harry and Draco spent much of the afternoon cooking and preparing for the nights dinner party. Draco, it turned out, was quite the brilliant cook and so he took over the kitchen making some sort of curry dish. Harry had to work on getting the whole dining room cleared up ready for their guests. Draco had insisted his parents wouldn't mind if they just ate in the kitchen, at the table in there, but Harry knew one thing about the Malfoy's above all other; they liked their things formal.

Harry had to shrink the dragon the children had now finished (complete with five legs, a droopy tail and uneven spikes all along it's back) which led to them all bursting into tears. It took him seven minutes to prise them all off him and then explain he would expand it as soon as he got to the guest bedroom. He did just that and then the children grinned at him and continued pretending to ride the dragon. He would get them changed later he decided as he headed down to the kitchen at around five that afternoon.

"How's it going down here Draco?" he asked the blonde as he sauntered in with a smile.

Draco turned round and he looked mildly panicked as he said, "I don't know how it's going! The curry just doesn't look the same as usual and I can't decide whether the taste is as good as usual. Harry can you try a little of this?"

Harry stepped forwards as Draco took a little of the curry from the pan on a spoon. Harry was just about to taste the spoon which was held tantalisingly in front of his mouth when Draco suddenly said, "You can't just eat it, you crazy fool, you have to blow on it first! This curry has been in a pan which has been cooking for half an hour, are you mad?"

Then Draco had raised it to his own lips and very gently blown on it until he deemed it cool enough for Harry to eat. Harry couldn't help the blush that spread on his cheeks when Draco fed him the mouthful of curry with a small smile. Harry licked his lips appreciatively and then declared, "That tastes amazing, Draco! You've really outdone yourself!"

Draco blushed then too at the compliment and then replied, "So I made chicken curry, lamb curry, beef curry and then a vegetarian curry because my mother and Scorpius both have their moments when they insist they're vegetarian, usually coinciding moments. Then I made some samosas, some with vegetables and some with meat, and naan breads, and I had to buy poppadoms because I didn't have time to actually make them."

"Draco... that's amazing! Do you entertain a lot then?"

"Yeah, we do actually. I see my in-laws quite a lot because they love Scorpius, so we have Daphne, Annabelle and Gregory round a lot. Then there are all my friends. They decided, probably a couple of years ago, that I was the best cook out of all of my friends. So if we meet up it always seems to be at my house. None of them have kids yet really."

Harry was seeing a totally different Draco now to the one he had once known at school. This Draco made all his own meals for others as well as himself. The Draco he had known would have never even thought of it, getting all his food from house elves. This Draco cared a lot for other people, his son and his in-laws even though he technically had no obligation to. Draco at school would have never even spoken to people in his house unless they had something he could gain. But it was nice that he had changed.

As they stood there, both thinking and wondering what the other was thinking, Teddy came into the room. The boy was a pale white and looked, if you didn't know better, like he was very ill. His breathing was laboured and he looked like he was about to be sick. Draco glanced at Harry worriedly and said, "Harry, we need to take him to St Mungo's now, he's really ill."

"Ah, actually he's not very ill, Draco," Harry replied surprising him.

"What? Harry, he can barely breath and he is whiter than the Bloody Baron ever was! Of course he is ill," Draco shouted.

"Calm down Draco. Teddy gets this a lot, don't you Teds? Teddy has panic attacks sometimes and it seems that meeting his new family is bringing on another one. I just need to slowly calm him down then he'll be right as rain again..."

Draco watched as Harry made Teddy jump up and down. Draco was still worried that Teddy would be violently ill if he did that but it seemed to be slowly calming him down. Then Harry told him, in a very firm voice, that he needed to calm down and think about what was happening. Then he said, "Draco is going to tell you a little about his family now."

He glanced at Potter who smiled at him slightly pleadingly and then clearing his throat said, "Basically my mother is quite the artist like I hear you are too. She loves paintings, and spends a lot of time going to muggle art galleries. I'm sure if you're interested she would love to take you some time too... Then my father can look a tiny bit scary but guess what? He is massively ticklish! He loves gardening, though he will never admit to it, and takes a lot of effort making Malfoy Manor look perfect. They will just love you. You didn't panic when you met me, did you? Well, then, you shouldn't have any cause to panic when you meet them either."

"...But I didn't know you were my family when I met you. I just want to make them like me and I am worried that your mum and dad may think I am silly or nasty, Mr Malfoy," Teddy said, bottom lip being fervently chewed.

"I know you, Teddy, and I know you are neither of those things. Just act like yourself and they will love you, I just know it. Also, you really should call me Draco, alright?"

Teddy nodded and then to both men's surprise pulled them both in for a hug at the same time. It was pretty awkward really, as they were pressed flush against each other, apart from the small boy. Then Teddy let them both go and scampered off to find the others with a small smile on his cute face.

"Well, Harry, I got to say you handled that well," Draco said breathing out heavily.

"Well he gets them quite a lot so I had to learn how to handle them," Harry replied. "Anyway I should probably be going to find the kids now so that they are changed in time for dinner. Last time I saw them they were covered in rather a lot of green paint."

Draco laughed as he left the room and then climbed up the stairs to the bedroom where the children were currently playing. Harry laughed when he saw Scorpius and Albus sitting on top of the head whilst James and Teddy sat on the tail. For a minute he wondered where Lily was but then the mouth suddenly squealed with delight and he realized. It took him nearly an hour to get the children changed and then after he had changed himself he went back downstairs to find out how Draco was getting on. The smells from the kitchen met him before he reached it and he took a second just to breath in the smells. As good as Hogwarts food had been they had never done curry and Ginny had never liked it. Now he just didn't know how to make it.

As he walked into the room he heard Draco swear loudly – "Oh, shit!" – and Harry laughed. Draco seemed to be flapping at himself like some sort of demented chicken which made Harry laugh harder. As he danced round the kitchen he snatched up the cloth from behind the sink which he started wiping on his front.

"Bet you're glad that it's me walking into the room not one of the kids, eh? What happened?"

Draco turned round and Harry noticed at once that he had clearly dropped some down his front which was now orange. Harry laughed as he tried to dab the sauce off again but to no prevail. "Stop laughing, Harry, these clothes were bloody expensive!"

"Ah, thank God! You know since I met you again last week I wondered if you had been replaced by someone because there was no way you could have changed that much, surely? But now I realize that, no, this is in fact you. Thank God!"

"Oh, shut it Harry!"

"You probably should go change. You can borrow some of my stuff if you like..."

Draco walked off to Harry's bedroom to find some clothes to put on. He reappeared about five minutes later wearing some clothes which Harry never wore, ever. The shirt had been a gift from Ginny when they first got married and it was a silvery grey that Hermione told him "washed him out" whatever that meant. The trousers were too tight for Harry, he's got them when the war was over, when he was still thin and lanky. But on Draco they fit perfectly and looked a lot better than they ever had on Harry.

"You know Potter I had gone upstairs expecting to find a wardrobe full of oversized shirts and jeans. You used to always wear clothes that looked massively too big, why?" Draco asked curiously.

"I don't think, up until I was eleven, I had a single brand new thing of my own. And even when I was eleven the only thing I actually got was a Weasley knitted jumper. It was brilliant."

"But... why?"

"Not all of us had massively privileged bringing-ups Draco..." Harry said uncomfortable to talk with Draco about his childhood. Even Hermione and Ron didn't know the full extent of the abuse he had received.

"Harry, even you must know you don't have to be privileged to never get a single piece of new clothing," Draco said quietly. There was a pregnant pause while Harry stayed silent clearly unsure of what to say now. Then Draco went back to stirring the meal and Harry walked over to get himself a glass of water. As he was sipping the glass deep in thought there was the loud patter of tiny feet and as the children thundered into the kitchen the doorbell rang.

"Daddy! Daddy! They're here! They're here!" shrieked all the children at their respective parents. Harry glanced at Teddy who looked just a little white but then Draco placed a calming hand on the brunette's shoulder.

"Let's go open the door then!" he said taking Teddy's small hand and leading him out into the hall.

_**Thanks for reading and maybe now you can review? x**_


	5. Chapter 5

**So it's been just over a month since I last updated but I can't see any reason for you to blame me! Seriously I have been working so hard at the moment with controlled assessments and I have my first GCSE in two weeks so ahhhhhhh! I'm freaking out! But here it is and I will post again when I can!**

**- Chapter 5 -**

Teddy was shaking as he walked to the door, hand in Draco's and Harry leaned against the kitchen door frame. Draco opened the door with a smile and they found Lucius and Narcissa standing on the steps. Lucius walked inside and at once bent down until he was at the same height as Teddy.

"And who, pray tell, are you?"

"I-I-I'm Teddy L-Lupin, S-sir," Teddy stammered, "It's very nice to meet you."

At once Lucius face broke into a smile at the small boy and said, "You know, I think I like you already. Now may I introduce to you, young Master Lupin, my lovely wife, Narcissa?"

Teddy gave this weird curtsey bow to Narcissa who suddenly couldn't control herself any longer and bending down pulled him into a hug. She lifted him up until he was sitting on her hip and then turning to Harry said, "He's such a little darling, Mr Potter, you must be so proud."

"I am very proud of Teddy," Harry said making Teddy blush, "And please, Mrs Malfoy, call me Harry."

"Then you must call us Lucius and Narcissa, Harry. Thank you so much for inviting us to your home tonight," Narcissa said with a graceful smile that every pureblood had been taught to perfect over time. She jostled him once more on her hip with a smile.

"It is lovely and a pleasure to have you both here tonight but I must confess to having slight ulterior motives. You see young Teddy here has recently – as in today – discovered that Draco, Scorpius and yourselves are his family too. He would really like to meet you properly and get to know you."

"Well, we love meeting family too," said Lucius.

Harry was surprised at how much Lucius was being nice to Teddy. Then suddenly Scorpius came hurtling out of the kitchen into Lucius' arms who lifted him up onto his hip too. "Well let's all go through to the Sitting Room and we can continue this conversation in there," Harry suggested with a smile.

He watched as Lucius walked through with Scorpius on his hip, Narcissa with a slightly too large Teddy and the other children following behind. Harry was just about to go back into the kitchen when Draco said, "You know they really do adore him already."

"He's thrilled," Harry commented with a pleased smile. "I wish he hadn't lost his parents. If there was one thing I could change about life then I would have made it so that he could just keep his parents. It's not fair to lose both, he was too young."

"You wouldn't change it so you could have your parents?" asked Draco incredulously.

"I mean, yeah, it would have been nice to have my parents but I know that sometimes things happen for a reason. My parents died because without their sacrifice I would never have survived the killing curse from Voldemort. Their sacrifice enabled me to be able to kill Voldemort, so I now know that it was for the greater good."

"You know, you should write a book. There is so much the world doesn't know about you and I think that they should. What do you think?"

"My life really isn't that interesting, Draco..."

"So many people would beg to differ, myself included. I know some people in publishing that would love to publish the story of your life. I could help you write it..."

"Look, maybe some other time but at the moment I am just kind of busy with the children and everything. Thanks for the offer though," Harry said picking up the wine.

He brought the wine through to the sitting room and set it down, along with a jug of pumpkin juice for the over excitable children. Then the doorbell rang, which Draco went to answer at his insistence, and minutes later Dromeda was added into the mix. Dinner was a highly pleasant affair and there was a lot of drinking which continued long after the children had gone to bed. When Narcissa and Lucius finally left there were arrangements made for Lucius to take James and Albus to see a Quidditch Match and Narcissa to take Teddy and Scorpius to some big art gallery in London. Dromeda left shortly afterwards, thanking him for a lovely evening and brilliant company.

Draco however remained a little longer at Harry's request. Both were now slumped on the sofa with bottles of wine in their hands laughing at some little joke. Draco eventually said, "S'a bit late now, innit?"

"Mmmm," was all Harry could manage to reply.

Draco tried to stand up but the second his bum left the couch he fell over again, landing in Harry's lap. When they woke the next morning Harry was lying flat on the couch with Draco pressed on top of him.

October 25th

Harry slowly stretched wondering what was going on and then he noticed the time on the clock on the mantelpiece. Before he could properly panic he suddenly realized he couldn't even get up. In trying he managed to knock both himself and whatever was on top of him to the floor. As he groaned he heard Draco say, "Do you know why I feel like I have been hit by a truck?"

"I think we might have drunk a little too much last night," moaned Harry as they both sat up. "I have some hangover potion and I know a sobriety charm if you want to use them."

They made their way to the kitchen and then Harry swore as he caught sight of the time again. "Look, I really have to get the kids going so..."

"No, you don't actually. Today, I am going to look after them like I told you yesterday so all you need to do is get to work and then I shall even send an owl to..."

"Molly, again. Look are you sure about this? Do you not have work?"

"Sort of. But talking can wait until later, Harry, right now you need to get to work. See you later," he said shooing Harry upstairs so the man could take a shower, and placing a bottle of hangover potion in one of his hands, and casting a quick sobriety charm. Harry smiled at him and then hurried upstairs so he wasn't late for work.

When Harry came running back the stairs ten minutes later he was sort of dressed. His clothes were all sticking to him from where he hadn't managed to dry himself properly. His collar was stuck up on his shirt which wasn't even tucked in at the back. His trousers had the flies undone, his socks didn't match and he had yet to tie the laces on his shoes. To be quite frank Harry looked a complete and utter mess. It took Draco no more than five minutes to sort him out completely and then he pressed lunch into Harry's hand as well as his coat before sending him out of the door.

Draco had always been the sort of person who liked organizing other people's lives. When his father had been trying to keep up the lies he was telling to Voldemort there had been times he would forget something crucially needed to keep up the façade. Draco would step in on his neatly kept notes, complete with alibis, and then Lucius would memorize them ready for the meetings. His mother also found it difficult to remember when she was supposed to pick up the new clothes she had ordered or something else, and so Draco, even whilst he was at Hogwarts would always send her little notes reminding her.

"Kids!" he yelled, suddenly aware that he hadn't seen them yet that morning. He hoped they weren't in trouble. When he finally had walked up to the bedroom they would have probably slept in he found them still asleep. This was unusual. Usually all the children – his most definitely included – would be awake at the crack of dawn. But here they were still passed out. Draco took a step forwards and then his foot hit something glass that rolled away from him. It was an empty wine bottle.

Picking it up he worked out fairly quickly what must have happened the night before. The children must have smuggled a bottle upstairs and then drunk it. He was immediately furious at the children; they should have known better.

It took him seconds to shake them all awake and then he snarled, "All of you better be downstairs in two minutes or trust me; heads are going to roll!"

Two minutes later and they all traipsed into the kitchen looking like they were going to be sick; whether from worry or the alcohol, Draco didn't know. He had lined up four of the barstools Harry used as kitchen seats and they each climbed up on one. Albus handed Lily over to Draco when he held out his hand; you couldn't blame a two year old. With her on his hip he pulled out the bottle saying, "Would someone please care to explain to me what happened last night and why I found an empty bottle of wine on the floor?"

All four of the boys looked down ashamed and Draco started to get really annoyed. "You were fully aware that the substance inside this bottle was alcohol, were you not? Yet you still thought it would be a good idea to drink it?"

At that moment two things happened. Albus leant forwards and was sick all over the kitchen floor and a voice called out Draco's name in the hallway. As Draco stepped forwards to vanish the vomit someone walked into the kitchen, someone Draco had not seen for quite some time. Severus walked into the kitchen with his usual austere face and said, "What on earth is going on in here?"

A glance at the children told Draco that they were terrified of Severus already, and suddenly he knew their punishment. "Well, Severus, these four have been very naughty. They have consumed alcohol and so now I am trying to think of a suitable punishment."

"Surely Potter has a Potions Lab, in such a grand old house like this? Then I would suggest you make them scrub out all the cauldrons he no doubt has lying about. I would be willing to supervise them... but wait. Why are you here looking after Potter's kids? Your house elf told me you were here so I hurried right on over."

"Harry had to get to work so I said I would look after the children for the day. There is some big case at his work at the moment so I volunteered because it seems our children get along rather well. Now, shall we proceed to the Potions Room?"

"Indeed, we shall."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Harry had gotten to work only ten minutes later than usual but he at once felt guilty for it. The ward was really busy again and he at once spotted the reason why lying on a bed in the middle of the ward. A girl had great big slashes down her face and there was the same pus leaking from it as before. The creature had struck again it seemed. Harry hurried summoned his robes so that he could get right in and try and stop the little girl from dying.

This girl was having fits too and as she slowly jerked about he yelled at Megan, "What's her name?"

"This is Annabelle Robbins, aged 4, admitted once she had been attacked by some sort of creature. Again tortured with a possible spinal injury this time. Parents have yet to be located."

Harry started taking her vital stats and then went to listen to her heartbeat but that was when they realized there was something inside the little girl. This time they could hear the creature making noises as it moved about her body. It had to be far away from her chest because the sounds were pretty weak and the spell usually gave quite a loud feedback. He started searching her body but so far could find nothing to figure out where the creature was coming from.

"There's something inside her!" he shouted as medical people hurried about, unsure of what to do. "I need someone to get a scalpel for me so I can cut this thing out before it kills her!"

A scalpel was thrust into his hands by one of the less experienced Medi-Wizards and then he cast a quick spell to enable the little girl to not feel pain from what he was about to do. Then suddenly he saw the creature underneath her skin stretching it tight and he slit the skin open. The creature lurched out of her tiny body and flew across the room to land in the middle of the ward floor. Someone at once stupefied it but Harry was much more concerned with the little girl who was now fitting scarily. As he tried to resuscitate her nothing happened and he started throwing diagnosis spells at her.

But before they could come back she lay still. When he pressed two warm fingers to her warm body he knew that her heart had stopped beating; she was dead. A horrific scream filled the ward from the parents of Annabelle and Harry couldn't bear to stay whilst they sobbed. Excusing himself from the ward he hurried away, wondering how he would feel if ever his own children were killed by some wayward creature. He couldn't even imagine the pain, didn't want to even think about the pain he would feel.

He stumbled out of the ward down the stairs until he reached the Hospital Café where he at once got some caffeine. He was sitting there when suddenly he heard someone call his name and come running over. Ron Weasley was holding Hugo in his arms, the little two year old having his arm tied in a sling. Ron hurried over and then noticed his best friend's face.

"Mate, is something wrong?" Ron asked concerned as Harry sat with a blank stare on his face.

"I just had to see another child die in my arms effectively. The child was so young. In my whole life I only ever have had two children die whilst under my care and both have been recently," Harry said before taking a drink.

"Take the rest of the day off," urged Ron, "Apparate with the kids to Australia. I've actually been over here with Hugo for a couple of weeks, staying all over, he broke his arm and then I was over on business. Nice little holiday for us. But I am going back now as they have got the final cast on Hugo, so can you come?"

"I can't today but it's just been hard. Is there any chance we could meet up this weekend maybe, as I have someone who I really think you should re-meet..." Harry said rubbing his temples.

"Bring the kids?" he asked.

"Yeah, this person has a boy the same age as Rose and Albus, nice kid," Harry said. Then he noticed Megan standing over by the entrance to the café and said, "Look, I have to go now because my colleague needs to talk to me but I promise that I will owl you this weekend."

Ron walked off with Hugo who smiled at Harry before blowing him a sloppy kiss over his Dad's shoulder. Harry blew him a kiss and then went back over to Megan who said, "Luna and Hagrid are here for you, but we also need to talk about the Public Threat. Kingsley Shacklebolt wants to meet with us in about twenty minutes but you have time to see both of the others between then."

Harry and Megan hurried up the stairs so they wouldn't be late to see either person. Luna and Hagrid were waiting outside Harry's office and after a quick smile at Megan he led them inside. Megan hurried off to help with the sort out on the ward whilst Harry poured them both some coffee. "Right then, I'm afraid we need to make this fairly quick because I need to see Kingsley after this."

"Right then," Luna said, sounding focused as she always did when something related to her job, "We have analysed the hair and found it belongs to some sort of mutant cat. The cat is not anything muggle, wizarding or a mix, that we seem to recognize. We supposed that someone has been given some sort of potion which has, against their will probably, made them into some sort of mutated creature, sort of like a werewolf transformation which makes him want to attack people. Now we cannot study the characteristics further without actually seeing and identifying the animal but we feel that we need to identify soon if it is just children the animal aims for or if that is just coincidence."

Hagrid then shifted in his seat and said, "Look, Harry, if there's one more attack, whether fatal or not, we have to alert the public to the danger that may be potentially there for them."

"God the publicity for our sector would be terrible, not to mention I couldn't stand it if another child... died," Harry said looking very worried. Luna knew that death was still a very tough subject with Harry and lent forwards to grasp his hand across the table. But then there was a knock on the door and in came Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"See you both soon," Harry said to Hagrid who smiled and Luna who wrapped her arms embarrassingly around him. Once they had both left Harry turned to Kingsley who grinned at him and said, "So, Saviour, how are you?"

"I am well thank you, Kingsley, and yourself?" Harry replied with a smile.

"Not too bad, not too bad," Kingsley said with a smile. "But I hear we have grave news to discuss about this animal case, no?"

Harry spent the next half an hour with Kingsley telling him everything that had happened recently. Kingsley – as an extremely intelligent man – had many suggestions to make on the subject but none of which would lead anywhere until they unfortunately had another attack. Next time Harry was determined to catch them and Kingsley promised that he would get all of his Aurors up to date with what was happening. Harry saw him out at about one and then spent the rest of the day catching up on paperwork – there was an inordinate amount when someone died.


	6. Chapter 6

**So two chapters up in two days! Can you believe it? But a few more reviews would be lovely on this chapter if you don't mind :)**

**- Chapter 6 -**

Eventually he was done for the day so he headed home to find the house seemingly empty. "Hello? Kids? Draco?" he shouted.

He literally almost jumped out of his skin when his pale faced ex-potions master stepped out of the door that lead to his Potions Lab. The man gave him a curt smile and then said, "Long time no see, eh, Harry Potter, father of four?"

"S-Snape, what are you doing here?" asked Harry surprised.

"I came to visit Draco and heard he was here so I have ended up spending the entire day intruding upon your house; I do hope you don't mind. Now I have been teaching the children how to make a basic healing potions, perfectly safely of course. Do you wish to come and see them?" asked Severus making Harry feel rather like he had entered Severus' house.

They walked down to the Laboratory together where Harry found Draco sitting with the children as they washed out another cauldron together. When Harry entered the room Lily toddled right on over and Harry lifted her onto his hip with a smile. "Thank you both so much for looking after my little misfits all day long," Harry said.

"It has been only a minor inconvenience," Severus said, "But now I must leave. I'll see you soon, Draco, and probably you too Harry."

He was gone with the same sweep of his robes that he used to have as he walked along the corridors of Hogwarts. That left them with five children who were now half asleep, either in their parents arms (in Lily's case), in their parent's laps (in Scorpius' case), on the floor with their face rested on a sponge (in Teddy's case) or inside the cauldron (in Albus and James' case).

"How do they manage to go from completely off their rockets hyper to half-asleep in the space of a few minutes?" asked Draco wondrously, "You'd think that they had been tired for ages but seconds before you came down they were still running about screaming."

"Staying at mine tonight?" asked Harry.

"D'you mind?" asked Draco quickly, "I just don't know if I can be bothered to go home again tonight."

So, yet again, Draco and Harry found themselves tucking their children up in the kids' room before heading off downstairs to have supper together. Draco made it this time – Pasta with a Tomato Sauce – and then they settled in the sitting room with wine.

It was only an hour later when they were completely and utterly drunk out of their minds. Draco and Harry sat together on the sofa, with Draco's arm somehow thrown around Harry's shoulders and a grin on his handsome face. As Harry laughed again at another stupid joke Draco suddenly grabbed the man and began to trail kisses up and down the man's neck. Harry gasped for a second, looking as if he was about to push away, and then suddenly he started kissing Draco – firmly on the lips this time.

They kissed more and more passionately as time ticked on until eventually Draco started pulling Harry up off the sofa. They both wrapped one hand in each others hair deciding that their hair was nice and soft. Harry slipped an arm round Draco's waist feeling each muscle defined clearly. The most pleasant thing about kissing Draco however had to be the warmth of his body against Harry's. Then Harry's lips were on Draco's neck again. They somehow staggered from the sofa all the way through to Harry's bedroom.

Draco moaned with pure pleasure as Harry sucked, licked and kissed it; he briefly wondered in his drunken state how Harry had learned to give such good kisses when at school he certainly hadn't been much of a dater then. Draco rubbed his hands up and down as Harry sucked until he moaned a little too loudly into Harry's mouth with a smirk gracing his cherry red lips. Harry kissed the boy with a slightly smug smile until he was completely done and then they both just lay back on the bed next to each other. Draco was not as drunk as Harry – he at once felt the way the guilt spread through his body – but Harry had already fallen fast asleep. With a small moan he closed his eyes too to try and sleep it off, but not before cursing quietly.

The following morning both Harry and Draco were awoken by the sunlight streaming in through the windows and the feeling of five children snuggling into their bed. "Daddy," Albus said as he poked his father, "Why did you fall asleep in your clothes? And why are you sharing a bed with Drakey?"

Harry shook his head, ignoring the pounding headache he had, and then remembered what had happened last night. Looking at Draco he noticed the man wouldn't actually look him in the eye. "We just fell asleep before we could get changed."

"But why-?"

"That's enough questions for now, we'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes when we have both got dressed," Draco said quickly as the children hurried from the room.

When they were gone the awkwardness hung in the air. Eventually Harry said, "I'm sorry but I have no idea what we did last night... we didn't, like, sleep together did we?" asked Harry.

"You and me... kissed," Draco muttered quietly.

"Ah, right," Harry said, feeling relieved they hadn't slept together properly, but horrified that he had kissed Draco's lips.

"This really does make me wonder where on earth you learnt to give such good kisses?" asked Draco with a laugh, hoping to diffuse some of the situations tension.

"Ah, right," Harry said again with a bright red face this time, "I may have experimented a couple of times around fifth year when I kind of had this thing going with Blaise Zabini. I think he was a friend of yours...?"

"Blaise?" Draco said surprised, "Fuck, didn't see that coming. Well, I hope this doesn't make things awkward between us-"

"No, no," Harry insisted, "Everything is fine."

But the awkwardness hung in the air until they were both finally dressed and downstairs. Then, whilst Harry served up all the children some muggle cereal, he asked, "Draco how have you not had to go into work yet since we first started meeting up?"

"I... I am actually the owner of multiple muggle businesses, mainly hardware businesses, but because I put a lot of work in earlier on in my life I can basically get away with going in very little of the time. It suits me perfectly considering that I had Scorpius to look after all by myself."

As the children ran from the room Harry said, "D'you ever miss living with someone? Ever miss coming home and not finding your house completely empty?"

"Yeah," Draco sighed, "I hate living in my house when it's so... empty. We were going to have loads of kids together, Astoria and I, but then she got ill so now I am left with a large house."

"This might be way out there but I was wondering if you wanted to stay with me for a bit... because I'm falling apart," Harry said.

Draco's eyes snapped up to meet Harry's and he said, "You need someone right now who can take care of you so you can take care of your kids. I think we should stay together, I don't mind at which house, though it would probably be easiest if we moved in here. Would that be alright?"

"Yeah that would be great," breathed Harry with a huge smile, "When do you want to move in?"

"Today's your day off, isn't it?" asked Draco smiling at his new house-mate, "So I vote that we spend the day as a sort of huge dysfunctional family and get some of my stuff from my house. Sound alright?"

It was a weird morning for all of them. The kids were sent off to Scorpius' room to help him pack some clothes and toys. Half an hour later and after an inspection of the clothes and toys Draco repacked Scorpius things so that he actually had underwear and toys he couldn't sleep without. Then whilst they all jumped on the bed Draco and Harry took Lily into the kitchen where she was placed in one of the high-chairs that had been bought for Draco's baby but never used or moved when the baby died.

"I just have to get together a few sets of clothing for myself, toothbrush and all that, then I am ready to go. Feel free to do whatever you like whilst I pack," he said.

Harry took the opportunity to wander through the house looking at the place Draco had built up for himself. He didn't doubt that Draco was completely loaded – he bet the businesses he owned were making him a lot – but considering that his house was done out rather modestly. He had a nice downstairs but the room that caught Harry's interest the most was the study. The room was the least tidy he had seen except the desk. The desk was littered with piles of paperwork that seemed to all have some sort of unknown order. Harry walked over to look at the picture – of a beautiful blonde woman he assumed was Astoria – when he noticed something on the top of the pile.

"What are you looking at?" Draco asked pleasantly as he walked into the room.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking at any of the papers I just wonder; what connection do you have to Grunnings Drills Makers?" asked Harry sounding slightly curious.

"I began owning them a few months ago. Actually I have a benefit tonight with them; some launch of a new drill. To be honest Blaise takes care of the business side a lot more than I do. Do you want to come with me tonight to this thing? Wait – why are you interested?"

"My Uncle works for them," Harry said. "But if you don't mind me coming it would be nice to go out tonight..."

"Well, it doesn't start until eight so if we grabbed some dinner before? Severus said he would look after the children for us," Draco replied.

When Harry had left Hogwarts after his repeated seventh year – with a heavily pregnant Ginny – he had never imagined he would be seeing so much of his Potions Teacher once he was gone. But when they were both getting dressed that night, with Draco in the room next door to Harry, he could hear Severus lecturing his young children on the merits of always keeping your cauldron spotless. As Harry tried to tie his tie for the fifth time there was a knock on the door and he called, "Come in!"

"Hey," Draco said, "Having trouble?"

Harry remembered being unable to tie a tie for his entire life but today it seemed he was being particularly stupid. Draco walked over and held out his hand which Harry placed the tie into with a sheepish grin. Draco wrapped it round Harry's neck and tied it and then said, "I made reservations at a really nice muggle place. You almost ready to go?"

"Yeah, just need to say bye to the kids."

Severus had them all in a line, down in the basement, watching him whilst he explained how to chop up roots. For a second Harry worried slightly about leaving his kids alone but then he noticed Severus was juggling a sleepy Lily on his hip. "Bye kids!" Harry said and they all disbanded briefly to hug him. He noticed half way through the bear hug that Scorpius was hugging his legs too, not that he minded.

Draco ruffled all their hair and kissed Lily and Scorpius' foreheads before saying, "See you later Severus, though I assume you'll be staying over?"

"If Pot- Harry doesn't mind?"

"Of course I don't mind," Harry said, "In fact, to be honest, this house is now in all effects mine and Draco's so he can invite whoever he wishes to stay. But please, there is a spare room on the third floor, multiple, so choose whichever one you wish."

Then they left before they were too late for their reservations to even make it. They were led into a muggle restaurant with a smile from the pretty waitress which they returned. When the waitress came to take their order she said, "Would you and your partner like wine?"

The two men practically stumbled in their attempts to tell her that they were not partners. When all three were red in the face and the waitress had apologized multiple times they did indeed get wine. They ate their fill at the cosy restaurant before heading to the benefit. It seemed since Harry had left his relatives house when he was still sixteen, seven year before, a lot had changed. The business had clearly become something major and Harry had no doubt that was due to Draco.

There were masses of people at the benefit and it seemed that Draco knew the name of all of them. Eventually Draco had to talk real business with Blaise about the new drill whilst Harry went off to get them both drinks. He was just getting a drink when he heard someone say, "What the hell are you doing here, boy?"

Harry wheeled round to find himself looking at his fat older Uncle who had a nasty look on his face whilst he clutched the arm of his equally thin and older aunt. Vernon and Petunia had not aged well in six years and were now more unattractive and unpleasant that ever. Harry always wondered how Petunia could be so different from what he knew his mother to be like. His mother was always smiling and beautiful. For a brief second he entertained the idea that Petunia was beautiful but years of being married to Vernon had made her internally and externally ugly. He was quite sure that Vernon had never been attractive.

"Boy, what the hell are you doing here?" asked Vernon going redder and redder in the face.

"I was invited here," Harry said coolly.

"Who in the ruddy hell would ever want you to come here with them?" asked Vernon whilst Petunia stuck her nose even further up in the air. "You with that stupid ginger of yours?"

Harry felt the anger inside of him bubbling up and he felt really stupid when tears began to roll down his cheeks. Vernon laughed as the boy couldn't think of anything to say until suddenly he felt someone's hand on his back.

"And who may I ask are you?" said Draco with his infamous Malfoy drawl. "What business do you have making Harry upset?"

"Who are you? Some little gay boy that the boy has now moved onto after breaking up with the ginger slut?"

"Ginny Weasley-Potter passed away a couple of months ago and they were definitely very happily married. And I am not dating Harry or anything else – we are friends – but I expect you to take that statement now or else."

"Or else what?" Vernon said stepping forwards menacingly.

"Or else you will be fired. I am Draco Malfoy, Mr Dursley I presume, and I am the Head of this whole thing."

"M-Mr Malfoy?" stammered Vernon. His face went completely white from the second he heard that and then said, "I am so sorry, I will do anything for you to let me keep my job."

"I don't think so, you stupid-"

"Draco, just let it go," Harry said, "Just let him keep the job. I need to go to the bathroom now anyway."

Harry ran off to the bathroom as fast as he could and slammed the door to the cubicle shut. Suddenly as he closed his eyes and sat on the down seat he found himself remembering his life.

Dudley and Harry sat together on the swings and for a minute it felt like they could actually be friends. Harry and Dudley were in the small town near the centre of France that the Dursley's took them to every year on their holidays. For that one period of the year, every year, they would actually get along very well. They would play together for hours and it would feel like he was actually part of a family. But then Vernon would turn up and at once everything was ruined.

"Boy!" he would scream, "What the hell gives you the right to mingle with my precious son!"

Then the beatings would begin, horrible, painful, and they would always leave him curled up like a baby when he was done. But Dudley would always creep into the room later that night and curl up on the bed next to Harry and hold his hand. He was always gone by the morning.

Harry heard someone enter the bathroom and then they called out, "Harry are you in here? Harry?"

Draco would come looking for him, and Harry knew it, but it was embarrassing to hear him being called out for like that. Harry shifted his focus as he thought and then called back, "I'm in the end. One second."

He walked out and doused his eyes with water from the cold tap. Draco waited until he was done and then tried to catch Harry's red eyes. When Harry wouldn't meet them through to shame from the crying he placed a hand on either cheek and turned the face to look at him, gently of course. "Forget him," Draco said. Then he pressed a quick kiss to Harry's forehead and led him outside so they could apparate home without being seen by any unsuspecting muggles.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The house was warm but dark when they apparated back into the sitting room. Draco flicked the lights on with his wand before slumping down onto the plush sofa with a small sigh.

"I'm sorry I ruined your night, Draco," Harry said in a small voice.

Draco snapped his weary eyes up to meet Harry's and then said, "You didn't ruin anything. I'd heard from Blaise that your Uncle and Aunt were not good people but he seemed horrible. But... I have a suggestion that I think maybe you should think about..."

"What?" Harry asked as he poured them both a whiskey from the drinks cabinet at the edge of the room.

"It seems to be hard for you to mention Ginny – though I totally understand that hearing your Uncle insult her like that was why you got particularly upset tonight. However I think that you need to talk with someone about this, someone professional who can help you. I think... you should go and have some therapy."

Harry's face went from being a very normal colour, if slightly red-cheeked from the crying, to being a very angry red all over.

"I DO NOT NEED THERAPY!" Harry thundered angrily looking completely furious. "You might think you understand me, Malfoy, but you know nothing! My wife has only been d-dead for two months and I have four children which I have to take care of! One of them isn't even my own."

Harry wrenched open the door then to storm off and found himself face to face with Teddy who was standing with tears running down his cheeks. Harry went pale as he said, "Teddy! Oh God, I didn't mean what I said, I was angry-"

But Teddy ran sobbing from the room and then they heard a door slamming in the distance. "You stay here!" Draco said, "I am going to see Teddy. Take the time to calm down."

Draco walked off towards the children's rooms but Teddy wasn't inside there so he moved on quickly. He walked past Severus but refused to say anything to the man who looked like he had been woken; he vaguely noticed that the man was heading downstairs towards Harry. He eventually found the sobbing boy sitting on Draco's bed looking completely heart-broken. He was wearing some snitch pyjamas in a magnificent Gryffindor red with the number seven printed on the back. The desperation to be like Harry was hanging in the air slightly pregnantly when he stepped inside and gently closed the door behind him.

Teddy's red eyes shot up and he just whimpered as Draco walked over to sit on the bed next to him. Draco wrapped an arm round Teddy and said, "He didn't mean it Teddy."

"Then why did he say it? I know my Mummy and Daddy are dead. But I thought that he was my kind of Daddy. I thought he loved me..."

"He does love you!"

But then Teddy broke down into sobs, endless heart-breaking sobs, and all Draco could do was hug him. "Teddy maybe you should go and stay with some other family for a while, like my parents. Your Daddy needs more time to get over losing your mummy so maybe staying with my parents might be nice?"

"OK," Teddy whispered. Draco managed to pack a bag for Teddy with a flick of his wand and then they walked down the stairs with Teddy balanced on his hip. Harry was standing at the bottom of the stairs and right then Draco could see how broken the other man was. His eyes were rimmed red, stubble grew quite thickly on his cheeks and his face looked pale and drawn. Severus was standing next to him looking concerned for the man, for Draco and for Teddy, more than Draco had ever seen him.

"Harry, I want to take Teddy to stay with my parents for a while, just whilst we get everything else sorted. Maybe you should think about getting Molly to look after your children for a while," Draco said very quietly whilst Teddy huddled tearfully into his chest.

He had expected a refusal or an argument but Harry just nodded pathetically and walked over to the fireplace. Draco apparated into his parent's house then and found himself almost face to face with his mother who screamed, "Draco!"

"Mother, I was wondering if I could ask you both a favour," Draco said.

"Come through! Lucius is sitting in the drawing room and- oh, you brought Teddy too!" Narcissa said delightedly as she led them through to the drawing room. The little brown haired boy looked completely exhausted as Draco watched him so they went to lie him down in Draco's room before returning downstairs.

"So," Lucius said when they were all seated, "Draco as nice as it is to see you, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at that benefit? And why did you bring Teddy? Is everything OK?"

"Not really. Harry kind of had a break down because... because I suggested that he maybe needed to think about therapy. He screamed a little and then ended up shouting "One of the children I look after isn't even mine!" But Teddy was outside the door and he heard. Severus was sitting with Harry when I left but I suggested the kids stay somewhere else for a while. But Teddy is gutted about having no family. So I was kind of wondering if you would look after him for a bit?"

"Of course," Narcissa and Lucius said then Lucius said, "You should go back to see Harry. He needs you now. Let us know how things are going. If the kids need somewhere to stay then we would be pleased to have them stay with us."

"Thank you," he said.

Apparating back to the house he found Severus on the cusp of leaving with the children. He had them all packed up and said, "Draco, the children will be staying with me for a while. Where would you like Scorpius to-?"

"Can he stay with you?"

"Of course. We will see you soon. Contact me when you are ready," Severus said before apparating them all away to his house.

Harry sat on his sofa sobbing as Draco walked into the room and sat down next to him. "Come on, it's time for you to get to bed, Harry, then we can sort this out in the morning," Draco said quietly.

Harry let himself be led from the room to his own bedroom where Draco began to help him slip off his tie then his shirt before he removed his trousers and crawled into bed with his socks still on. Draco leant over to pull the covers up to Harry's chest when suddenly a hand shot out to grab his wrist.

"Please, stay with me tonight," Harry sobbed.

Draco kicked off his shoes and then pulled off his tie before climbing in next to him. Whilst they lay pretty awkwardly next to each other Draco wondered what Harry was thinking. At the smallest sob from Harry, Draco pulled him closer so he was wrapped around him before making soothing noises in his ears. An hour later and his breathing had stilled enough for him to deduce that he was asleep.

In the morning they woke and Harry felt possibly worse than he had felt the night before. His head pounded from the crying and he felt slightly nauseous when he sat up. Draco was lying next to him but quickly swung out of bed when he noticed that Harry was awake. "You get yourself showered and then I will meet you downstairs alright?"

Ten minutes later and Harry was sitting in green cotton pyjama bottoms with wet hair. Draco set down a cup of tea – peppermint flavour which was the only flavour that he drank – before sitting down in the chair opposite him. "OK, talk."

"I need help. I... I never got closure. I loved her. I miss her," Harry said slowly. "I need closure."

"Then we need to spend however long it takes getting you the closure you need and deserve. Maybe you should write down things you think would help-"

When women cry it is an obvious thing with tears streaking down faces and loud sobs. But when men cry it is a confusing thing with shoulders going up and down but no noise and rarely any tears. Women are easy to comfort, all they want is for someone to wrap an arm around them and make soothing noises. But men? Men are awkward, you don't know quite what to do when you see them cry. Draco wrapped an arm round him and said, "So why don't you organize a huge remembrance party for Ginny or something?"

Harry calmed down enough to say, "Alright. But... what about my children? I know Severus will look after them just fine but I don't want them to be permanently angry with me or hate me."

"The first person you need to talk to is Teddy," Draco said, "But right now you need sleep." So sleep they both did.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

In the morning Teddy woke in a strange room that he had never seen before. For a brief second he was afraid, wondering why he was here and not at home with his brothers, sister and Scorpius. But looking round the room as he rubbed his eyes he noticed photos on the mantelpiece that at once calmed him down. Pictures of a boy who looked just like Scorpius were on every surface and suddenly the memories of the night before came rushing back like a perfect storm.

Teddy got his feet and jumped out of the quite high bed where his feet landed on the green fluffy rug on the floor. Looking round the room it was clearly the room of a teenage boy, untouched for quite a long time. On the mantelpiece sat three snitches, a small figurine of some handsome quidditch player, a golden Head Boy Badge and small unopened box. Around the room lay Quidditch robes, normal school robes, a school trunk, a green school tie and a broomstick which said Nimbus 2001 on it's black handle.

"Teddy?" said a voice making the small boy jump half out of his skin.

Standing in the doorway were Lucius and Narcissa both wearing matching pyjamas in beautiful silver. Lucius had his arm around his wife's waist and was smiling pleasantly at Teddy before saying, "Teddy? Do you want to come down and have some breakfast with the two of us?"

"I'd love some breakfast," said Teddy. Narcissa held out her arms for the small boy and then lifted him up onto her hip.

Lucius was hilarious as he made pancakes, tossing them up and down with half of them getting stuck to the ceiling or landing on the floor, whilst singing loudly the whole time. Narcissa had Teddy sitting on his lap and the adoration in her eyes when her husband laughed and then Teddy giggled made Teddy feel really special. He knew, despite what Harry had accidentally said, that Harry loved him but it was the safe sort of love that was given out unconditionally, no matter how special you really were. But this love? This love was given because they liked him for him.

Eventually when the three were sitting down eating pancakes Narcissa shot Lucius a nervous glance. "Teddy, your Daddy says he wants to talk to you," Narcissa said gently and carefully.

"I don't have a Daddy," replied Teddy refusing to look up and meet Narcissa's eye.

"She means Harry," Lucius explained kindly.

"Harry isn't my Daddy," Teddy said, again not looking up. "You are my only family and that's why I love you."

"We love you too, Teddy," Narcissa said with a huge smile. "You are part of the only family we have left. We aren't going to make you talk to Harry but he is really sorry about what happened, Teddy. You can stay with us for as long as you like."

Teddy was pleased that they weren't forcing him to do anything and so snuggled further into Narcissa's embrace. Then Lucius said, "So Teddy, we have nothing planned for today so what would you like to do?"

"I don't know," Teddy said. He had never been asked what he wanted to do for ages, since long before Ginny died.

"Have you ever been to a wizarding zoo?" asked Narcissa, "They are way more fun than muggle zoos."

So an hour later they arrived at a wizarding zoo, the first time Teddy had ever been to one in his life. Lucius guessed that Harry probably didn't know that wizards even had zoos. Teddy was thrilled by everything he saw – he was a very easy child to please – but when they reached the dragon exhibit he became ecstatic. Something about the way the dragons flew through the air excited him greatly and they spent hours just watching them. When the day ended they had bought Teddy a giant dragon toy as well as a dragon t-shirt, dragon pyjamas and a book on dragons too.

Although they were both coming up for fifty they still swung him from their hands as they walked along. When he got tired Lucius would put him on his shoulders without any complaint. Suddenly Teddy wished he was Draco, he wished his parents were here and treated him like this.

"When do I have to leave?" he asked curled up in Lucius' arms that night after his bath.

"You can stay as long as you like. We love having you here. You know the room you stayed in last night? That used to be Draco's room when he lived here with us and we still haven't changed it. Narcissa always wanted to have more children. I mean we sort of have Scorpius but Draco doesn't like it when we meddle too much. Maybe you could spend some more time with us?"

"I'd like that," Teddy said as he closed his eyes sleepily. Minutes later he was asleep in Lucius' arms.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Draco had received an owl early in the morning from his parents which said this:

Draco darling,

I'm sorry but Teddy really shouldn't see Harry today. They love each other too much to hurt each other by rushing into things too quickly. Teddy isn't just hurt by what Harry said though.

He is upset because he hasn't been getting enough attention since Ginny died. We are just going to have him for a little longer; we plan to take him to see a wizarding zoo today. Please look after Harry for us and we will either owl or fire-call you later,

Lots of Love,

Mummy and Daddy (though I know you hate us calling ourselves that)

Draco had folded up the letter and then gone to see if Harry had woken up quite yet. Harry was lying on the bed, his limbs wrapped up in the silver silk sheets, and most definitely fast asleep. Draco walked into the room Harry had slept in and realized that this clearly wasn't the room that he had once shared with Ginny. This room looked like it had once been owned by a teenage boy, it was faintly reminiscent of the room that Draco had saved at home like some weird shrine.

There were Quidditch Robes, Posters, and one golden snitch on a shelf with the words I open at the close etched into the side. Draco briefly wondered what it was about and then had the opportunity to ask as he heard Harry waking up.

"Harry, why does this snitch have words engraved into it? Is it something special?"

Harry was still half asleep as he rubbed his eyes but eventually he yawned out, "You have to keep this secret." Then he looked more awake and said, "That is the first snitch that I ever caught, remember, the one that I almost swallowed? I didn't really know what happened to it but then when Dumbledore died he left me this in his will. Nothing happened when I touched it but when I pressed my lips to it later it came up with that message. As I was walking towards Voldemort at the Final Battle I told it I was going to die. I opened it and inside was one of the Deathly Hallows; the Resurrection Stone."

"You know," said Draco sitting down, "This is why you really need to write an autobiography of your life."

"One thing at a time, eh? But I have been thinking about things and I know exactly what I need to do for the celebration party. There is this beautiful field where you can see huge rolling hills and mountains for miles. It's a cornfield but it will all be cut down at this time of year so it would be the perfect place to have a party. What do you think?"

"I think we need to speak to Pansy and Blaise. Pansy is so brilliantly organized and Blaise has more connections than the rest of England put together. So what do you say?"

"That sounds cool."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A week later and fairy lights lit a trail from the front of the gate right into the cornfield, all the way along the little path. The lights were sparkling a pretty white as each couple walked silently along looking at each beautiful picture of the red headed girl they had each loved. Ginny Weasley had been undeniable beautiful, no one could deny it, but it hurt now to look at her face. However even as they ached everyone couldn't help but smile at the pictures.

A lot of people were already there but sitting on a tree trunk a few feet away from the entrance were two men. They were behind a big bush, one with raven hair and the other with platinum blonde. "Everything looks really nice Harry," Draco said quietly to his new friend.

"All thanks to you," Harry replied with a weak smile.

"No, I just did what you told me. You were the one that made things look so good. But are we going in now?" he asked with a kind smile, trying his hardest not to pressurize Harry into doing anything that he didn't want to do.

Harry got to his feet with a sharp nod and then suddenly went a very horrible shade of white. "This is a lot harder than I ever could have thought it would be," Harry muttered, "I don't know if I can do this."

But Draco just held out his hand for Harry to take and whispered, "I'm here." Then he led him gently off towards the entrance.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the long gap between updates! Can't promise when the next one will be up! ~Charlotte xx**

**- Chapter 8 -**

Draco and Harry walked through the archway, with the flowers entangled in the trellis, as the lights twinkled gaily. Harry felt numb as he glanced at the pictures even though he had seen them hundreds of times before. Most of them had been taken out of the piles of photos albums that he had compiled since finding out Ginny was ill and then her unfortunate but inevitable death. So many pictures of her looking so beautiful but always in the later pictures you could see the illness shining behind her bright eyes and knew it wasn't quite the perfect picture. When he finally reached the end of the path there were hundreds of people standing in the cornfield, hundreds of people which Ginny had known for years.

For a minute there was silence and then Harry croaked, "Sonorus. Er, I first met Ginny when I was only eleven on my first day of Hogwarts. She was complaining loudly to her mother, Molly, that she wanted to go with her brothers. Like her mother Ginny had a slight temper and was pretty stubborn to boot though I must admit that I thought very little of it as a meeting until I was slightly older. Years passed quickly and I came to think of her as a good friend but I suppose she was always just Ron's sister; a presence so constant that I almost accepted her like I did all my other friends.

"In fifth year I noticed she was going out with a friend of mine, one Dean Thomas, and then I realized that I was jealous. Around the same time I think I noticed that Ron loved Hermione and somewhere in my mind I thought how nice it would be if we could be a four. But sixth year was when I finally realized how deeply in love with her I was. When ever I needed someone who would just understand in the same second as I thought she would be there and knew what to do in a reasoned and fair way. Time flew and we survived the war together and it seemed like we just picked up where we had to leave off before I went away.

"Time flew further and we were going to settle down and have children together when I noticed she wasn't as well as she could have been. It was terrible finding out she was dying; worse than anyone can ever imagine. We had the children by this point, we were married, but she wasn't going to live to see them grow old. I always loved Ginny Weasley and I always will but now I realize that we have to live on despite everything, we have to live for her. Thank you for coming tonight."

Harry then quietened his voice before tears began to roll down his pale face. Draco wrapped an arm round his waist before leading him away from everyone's watchful eyes. The band started up, playing all her favourite music, and Draco led him to where there were empty seats near the edge of the hastily thatched dance floor. As they sunk down into a love seat everyone began to dance together, smiling, laughing and generally looking happier than Harry could have hoped for.

Half an hour of complete silence later and Draco was still sitting with his hand clasping Harry's firmly. Harry said, "Will you dance with me?" but it was so quiet that Draco almost didn't hear.

However the blonde swept him to the dance floor where they began to whirl quite slowly at first then faster until Harry was laughing. "Draco, thank you so much for this, Ginny would have loved everything about it. This is just so perfect. But I mustn't hog you all to myself as there are many other people I need to talk with."

As Harry made his way off through the crowd Draco suddenly felt rather awkward as if he had no right to be there. He tried to make his way over towards the drinks table; the only place it was acceptable for a single man to stand without looking completely alone. But then Molly Weasley came over to him with the same motherly smile that he had rarely seen grace his mother's face and said, "I don't suppose a nice young lad like yourself would want to dance with an old lady such as myself?"

Draco smiled at her, as warmly as he could possibly manage and then they headed back onto the dance floor together. Meanwhile Harry had been swept away by Hermione who was currently dancing to the slow dance with him. "Ginny would have loved this, Harry. You are so lucky to have found someone as good for you as Draco – Ginny would have approved you know."

"What do you mean by that, Hermione?" Harry asked as they swung past Draco who was still dancing away with Molly Weasley and laughing happily with her.

"Ginny would be happy that you're dating someone who is as good for you as Draco is," Hermione said as if it was obvious.

"I'm not dating Draco! For a start I don't fancy men, for another I am still in love with Ginny and for a third thing we have a merely platonic and friendly relationship," Harry insisted as the song changed to a much faster one.

"Harry, I've seen the way he looks at you. Just don't rule it out as an option," Hermione said. Harry didn't get the chance to reply because then Draco came over and said to Hermione, "Can I cut in here, please Hermione?"

Hermione nodded and smiled and then Draco grabbed Harry's hands and they began to dance together to the slow and rather melancholy song that the band was playing. Harry was completely relaxed and almost missed when Draco whispered in his ear, "Harry, Teddy has arrived with my parents. In a minute you need to go over and speak with him. Do you want me to come?"

"N-no," Harry stammered, suddenly nervous at the prospect that his Godson might not ever want to speak to him again. "I need to do this alone and explain things to Teddy. Although Teddy is only six I need to explain to him things in slightly more grown up terms so he understands that I still love him with all my heart. Look the song is about to end and then, if you don't mind, I am going to go and find him, and tell him that I love him."

Draco simply smiled and wished him luck. When the song did end Draco was swept away by Ron who "wanted to have a word with him" and Harry hurried over to where Teddy was sitting on Lucius' lap. "Hey, Teds, can I have a talk with you?"

"I guess," Teddy said, without looking Harry in the eyes. He hopped off Lucius' lap, whilst the older man gave him a large smile before flashing it at Harry also, and then Harry walked them both away from the small crop circle like area to where the corn grew high. When they could hardly hear the sound of the music coming from the clearing Harry stopped them both and turned to Teddy with a worried smile.

"Teddy, I am so sorry. Since Ginny passed away I haven't been coping very well and sometimes I say things I don't mean because of it. You see I know you have lost your parents, but I have lost mine plus so many other people that I considered like a parent to me. I know so many people who have passed away to heaven now and it upsets me sometimes, a lot. What I am trying to say is that I not only love you as if you were my own son, I consider you my son and... I want to adopt you, Teddy, properly and formally."

Teddy just stood there, scuffing some new shoes that Harry had never seen before against the dirt covered field, without answering. Eventually he said, "I don't know..."

"Well I am not going to force you into making a decision any time soon but I would love you to become my official son by law. I know it's a big decision but you could still keep your surname and everything so you would always be a Lupin too. But... do you forgive me, Teds?"

"I guess so," Teddy said, managing to look up into his sort of father's eyes as he said it this time. As he stared at Harry, weary from nights of working through his problems and looking after them all, he wondered whether it would be better just to stay with the Malfoys. I mean, he loved Harry, don't get him wrong, but at the Malfoys he wasn't a hassle on them and they had the time which he needed.

But he didn't need to make a decision now – Harry had just said that – so instead he took Harry's hand, earning him a pleased and hopeful smile, and together they walked back to the clearing. Teddy ran off to join the other children as he hadn't seen them since they had gone to Severus' house and had missed them greatly. Harry went over to join Draco who was swirling some pink drink at the edge of the cleared circle, whilst staring up at the bright white orb in the night sky. Draco seemed to be engrossed by the stars and was muttering the different names of each constellation whilst Harry just stared, ignorant of the different formations. Eventually Harry sighed and said, "It's a beautiful night tonight. She would have loved it."

Draco jumped, jerking himself from his daydreaming and then turned to smile at Harry who was smiling right at him. "How'd it go with Teddy then?"

"I told him I was sorry and he seemed to accept it nicely. I told him... I told him I want to formally adopt him and he said he wasn't sure about it but would think about it. So I am going to give him as much time as he needs and then let him come back to me when he is ready," Harry surmised with another huge smile.

"That's great, Harry, really it is. It will be nice to have everyone back together under the same roof. Severus will look after the kids for as long as we want him to but personally I am going to bring back Scorpius tomorrow. Your choice what you want to do with James, Lily and Albus."

"I need them back with me. It is not right for a father to be separated from his children for so long and with everything that has happened to them recently we need each other. So tomorrow we should hold ourselves a little "welcome back we missed you" party at our house."

Draco grinned at him in the moonlight. "So... what did Ron want to talk to you about when he dragged you away?" Harry asked curiously.

Ron had been desperate to talk to Draco but he had always been around someone and when he was with Harry he couldn't interrupt, not with his best friend looking so happy. Eventually he heard Harry tell Draco he was going to find Teddy for some reason and he took the opportunity to jump in and sweep Draco away. He could see the mild worry in Draco's eyes and could sense it from his posture as they danced more into the centre and almost felt slightly guilty for worrying him so. Finally he said, "Don't look so worried, Draco, I am not about to murder you in front of all these people, especially not my family for that matter."

"Oh right," Draco said, not denying that murder had been along the lines of which he had been thinking, "That's good I guess."

"I want to talk to you about Harry. Or more specifically what are your intentions in regards to Harry," Ron said blushing the red that the Weasley's were famed for.

"I'm sorry?" Draco said, hoping and wondering if he had misheard.

"Plainly said, do you only want a platonic relationship with Harry or are you looking for a relationship at some point in the future? Because he is totally not ready for one right now, I hope you know?"

"I want to be Harry's friend," Draco said.

"But then are you looking for a relationship after friendship has been thoroughly achieved or not?" Ron asked again insistently, desperate to know the motives of someone who had once made all their lives hell, "Can you please just be truthful, Draco?"

"I'm sorry but this is hard on me too! I mean I lost my wife only a year ago and since then everything has been confusing and harder than it should be. I honestly have no idea how Harry copes with it all. But the thing is... I always thought women were my true calling but now... I find myself a little attracted to him. But I know that now would not be the time to make a move and I would never pressure him... particularly as I know he is straight. Has that stopped your worries?"

"Not really, no. I mean I actually want Harry to move on and with you being who you are I reckon it would be better than with someone we all don't know. So I don't want either of you to rush if your are not ready but just so you know – you have Hermione's and my approval if you do decide to take this somewhere," Ron said with a small smile.

"R-right. Thank you?" Draco said unsurely whilst Ron gave him a smile that he was pretty sure hadn't been directed by a Weasley at a Malfoy for a few centuries.

"It's OK. But... I wouldn't assume that Harry is as straight as you think he is, OK?" Ron said before the song ended and they both left the dance floor, over to join Harry and Hermione who were drinking pink punch from the cups they had scooped from the never-ending bowl.

"Hey you two," Hermione said, handing a cup of the pink sugar to Ron whilst a smiling Harry handed one to Draco. They all gulped down the punch in silence, a comfortable one as they looked around at the people who had come to celebrate Ginny's life with them. However it had probably been the Weasley twins who had sorted out the punch bowl because rather quickly Draco and Harry found themselves high on alcohol as children were taken from the party until only adults remained. It was how Draco and Harry found themselves settling down together onto a blanket by two barrels of hay whilst many others slumped down over the floor. Harry could see Hermione and Ron passed out together, Hermione's body above Ron's whilst the moonlight shone down on their clothes and faces.

"Thank you, Draco, thank you for such a wonderful night," Harry murmured with his mouth almost a little too close to Draco's ear to stop the shiver that ran through Draco's body.

"It's alright Harry, I have actually rather enjoyed myself," Draco admitted as they glanced up at the stars. For the millionth time in his life Draco wished he had taken Astronomy at NEWT level because he would have loved to be able to identify exactly what he was looking at. However the stars were still wonderful and nothing could detract from the wonderful feeling of lying down next to Harry and just _being_.

"This might sound weird but... sometimes I look up at the stars and when they shine brightly and think that it's the people up there looking down on me, protecting me," Harry said, "I don't think Ginny could have possibly just left her children down on this earth without any protection. I love them so much and she did too. I even love Scorpius now too, did you know that?"

"I love yours just as much. They are perfect angels," Draco said.

Someone dropped a glass that sounded like it smashed but they both felt the magic wash over them as someone else vanished it away. Harry wondered what the twins had put in the punch because whatever it had been was making him lose all his inhibitions. There were so many inappropriate things he wanted to do but he knew that it was the alcohol making him want to do them. Managing to keep them under control he said, "Do you think Teds will come back to me tomorrow?"

"I don't know. It might take longer than that but I know he'll come back to you in the end, Harry," Draco replied sleepily. He wanted to roll over and pull the covers up to his chin; it took him five seconds to even remember he was just lying on a rug in a field not in his huge bed in Malfoy Manor. He hoped that Scorpius was alright with Severus who had insisted Draco stayed whilst he took them home with him. Harry rolled over so he was facing Draco and the blonde man couldn't resist looking all over his beautiful face, illuminated by the pale moonlight which shone into the field like a peacock showing its feathers with pride.

Finally he was just too tired and Draco said, "Night, Harry."

Harry moved a little closer and pressed one quick kiss to Draco's lips before whispering back, "Night, Draco." Then he was asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to those who reviewed my last chapter so far: **, Lady Constance Malfoy Hummel, Berightthere **and **iceyxstrawberry**! You guys all rock for reviewing but I am just grateful that some people are even reading :) So you are lucky to be getting two updates so soon but I have basically forced myself to finish this chapter. **

**- Chapter 9 -**

Teddy had been taken home by Lucius and Narcissa after he had fallen asleep whilst dancing with both of them, and then put straight to bed. In the morning he woke up on the same place as he had done for a couple of weeks now and smiled as he walked down the stairs to where Lucius and Narcissa were sitting in the kitchen. Narcissa was nursing a cup of coffee which Lucius had made for her and Teddy had only just sat down next to her when a glass of milk was placed on the table for him.

"Auntie?" Teddy asked, "Did you used to love Draco like this? Do all other parents do this for their children?"

Narcissa knew she had to word this well if she was ever going to get Teddy to return to Harry who was missing him and pining for him. Not that she didn't want the little boy but he belonged with Harry and they would much prefer being there as a supporting role as opposed to a full on parental role. "You see, Teds, when I had Draco I didn't have a job and I certainly didn't have any other children to look after. All I had to do was look after him and sometimes I could get the house elves to do it for me whilst I went out and did what I wanted. I had a very easy life but Harry, your Daddy, has four children, no one there to help him all the time and he has a job which he loves and needs to keep for money. I know Teddy that you feel that Harry doesn't pay enough attention to you but think about it; you lost yourself a mummy but he lost his wife and he has to stay strong and look after you whereas you can go about being sad. Do you understand?"

"Have I made Daddy sad? Is he upset that I don't live with him?" Teddy asked, trying to understand the situation.

"Your daddy misses you a lot and all he wants from life is to have you back, you know that, right?" Lucius said, coming to sit down and then pulling the young brunette onto his lap. "Now today, I think we should spend some time at the park and then maybe a little later we could think about going to talk to Harry? He wants you to move back Teds, and I think you want to as well."

"I miss him," Teddy said thoughtfully. "So... can we go and get some ice cream and _then_ see Harry?"

"Of course you can," Narcissa said, "If you go upstairs and get some clothes on then we'll be ready by the time you come back down, alright?"

Teddy scampered off and Narcissa breathed a sigh of relief at the crisis that had been diverted. Lucius walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing a tiny kiss to her forehead. "It's going to be alright for all of them," he said, "I just know it."

When Teddy came downstairs in his dungarees and t-shirt, Lucius locked up the house with a wave of his wand, before they left together. It was a beautiful warm day as they walked to the park and Teddy scampered along, swinging his arms around like a plane whilst Lucius and Narcissa followed behind in a comfortable silence. In the park there was an Ice Cream van from which they all got something. Teddy gobbled his down in almost no time at all and then insisted that he _had_ to go and play in the park whilst the Malfoy's finished theirs.

Finally it was time to go back to Harry's and for the first time Teddy started to show a slightly nervous aura. When the signs began to show of a panic attack however, Lucius lowered himself down to Teddy's height and said, "All Harry wants is for you to come home. He loves you, OK?"

Arriving at Grimmauld Place was a big step for Teddy but they could already hear the sounds of the children laughing inside, and Harry and Draco joking around with each other. Narcissa lifted her blue dress slightly as she climbed up the stairs and then knocked three times, taking a step back to wait. Harry was the one who opened the door and for a second he just stared at them with his mouth open – a rather funny sight considering he had paint all over his face.

"Harry," Narcissa said, "Teddy's home."

Teddy wouldn't see the tears that formed in Harry's eyes because he had thrown himself into Harry's arms and buried his face into his shoulder but the older Malfoy's did. Harry gestured for them to follow him inside but Lucius said rather gruffly, "This is a time for family. We'll see you soon."

Harry nodded, tears now pouring from his eyes and gently shut the door as they walked back down the steps and presumably home again. Harry quickly scrubbed at his face with one hand before turning Teddy so they could look each other right in the eyes. "Teddy, you don't know how glad I am to have you home again, I missed you so much. I'm sorry Teds, I didn't mean what I said."

"I know... Daddy," Teddy said.

Draco had come out to see what or who was taking Harry so long at the door but he had ducked back into the sitting room when he saw the two hugging so tightly. When Harry and Teddy came back into the room there was a moment whilst all the children hugged him and dragged him over to where the painting of a pink girl dragon to keep Hugo (the green dragon that was living in a bedroom upstairs) company. Draco took Harry's hand in his own and pressed a small kiss to the underside.

"Tomorrow we should go out for the day, go to the funfair down by the river," Draco commented idly. "I'm going to make some coffee, let's go and talk."

Inside the kitchen Draco put the kettle on whilst Harry set about making glasses of squash for the kids and then Draco turned to him. "I think tomorrow we just need to have a fun day as a fam- as a whole and the funfair would be a great way to do it, don't you think?" Draco asked.

"I'm up for that," Harry said. Draco smiled back at him as he walked over to stand in front of him and suddenly an urge pulsated through Harry's body, one born from relief and happiness and love. He very carefully and slowly leant forwards until he could hold Draco's hand and then pulled him closer, the whole time keeping his own eyes locked on Draco's. In a second their faces were so close, close enough that all he could see was him and then he very slowly moved his face closer until he could feel the cool breath that was Draco's on his lips. And then he kissed him.

This time they weren't drunk and there was nothing motivating him to do it except for the fact he really wanted to kiss him. For a few minutes there was no noise in the kitchen apart from their deep breathing and then the kettle started to shriek as it boiled. They both pulled apart, deep red in the face but both looking rather pleased with themselves.

"I've wanted you to kiss me for such a long time," Draco said, "But this was really the perfect moment, wasn't it?"

"It felt like it," Harry said.

But they didn't get the chance to finish their conversation as the children began to call their names from the sitting room. "We'll be through in a minute," Harry said, before turning to Draco and saying, "Talk about this later?"

Draco nodded and went to finish making the cups of tea whilst Harry walked with a tray of squash in plastic cups through to the room which was now predominantly made of pink paint. Setting the tray down they all grabbed a cup as clearly painting pink dragons was very thirsty work. Draco walked through with their two cups of tea on a tray and a beaker full of milk for Lily who was gurgling away in her little play pen, disenchanted by the idea of painting when playing with her dolls was another offer.

"This," Draco said dramatically, "Is the _best_ pink dragon that I've ever seen in my entire life!"

Various whoops could be heard from the children as they admired their wonky work proudly accompanied by a small cry from Scorpius who had sloshed squash down his front. Draco spelled it off quickly and then said, "Now we have a big decision to make and I think we might need your help... I can't be bothered to cook tonight and we all know Harry is rubbish so where shall we go and eat tonight?"

For a second there was a contemplative silence before Albus mumbled something that sounded like, "The dairy's stale idiot!"

However clearly Harry had understood Albus better as he said, "We haven't been to the Fairytale Village in ages Al, good idea! How does that sound to everyone else then?"

From the children who had lived with him all their lives there were whoops of excitement and from Scorpius and Draco looks of abject confusion. "Harry, what's this Fairytale Village?" Draco asked.

"When Lily was a few days old we were coming back from St Mungo's and the children all started moaning that they needed something to eat – Teds especially, right Teds? We decided to go into the first place we saw and the first place looked pretty normal until we went inside. Inside all the food and the walls and the tables and _everything_ is themed around Muggle fairytales – a bit like the Beedle the Bard ones but a lot... fluffier," Harry explained, "Ever since it's become our favourite place to eat. Scorpius will love it."

The children were hyper all day from that point onwards until finally it was time for them to head out so they could get tea. Whilst the children ran upstairs to wash their faces and brush their hair, Lily being pulled gently along by Albus and Scorpius, Harry turned to Draco who was watching him slightly like a cat watches a mouse. Draco slunk forwards and looped his arm around Harry's waist before pressing one gentle kiss to his mouth. He drew back but Harry pulled him closer again and pressed kiss after kiss to his mouth until they heard the thundering of the children coming back down the stairs.

"How are we getting there, Daddy?" Teddy asked, and for a second Harry couldn't answer, so pleased was he to hear those words again.

"It's not far from here Teds, don't you remember? We're going to be walking there though Lily will go in her pram," Harry said, walking to the below the stairs closet and pulling out a blue pram with large black wheels.

Lily was placed into it by Draco who did up her small belt and then the large group of seven scrambled out of the house to make the five minute walk to the restaurant. It was a warm night yet again and Harry was glad he was only wearing a thin shirt as they walked, the boys running ahead playing with sticks and a bouncy rubber ball James had picked up from somewhere. Lily had fallen asleep in her pram which would be annoying when he had to wake her up but did give Harry the chance to talk to Draco.

"So... about the kisses," Harry trailed off.

"If you're completely uninterested in them and me then just tell me now," Draco said boldly, "Because I would rather we just stayed friends for the kids sakes than fall out and never see each other again."

"I am interested actually. I know we've both had a tough time recently but... being with you makes me feel like Ginny used to make me feel. It has never been a secret that I've liked both genders but you are definitely the first person who I have even thought about in that way since her."

"I feel much the same, except I have been feeling this since the first day I saw you in that park," Draco said, "The way you looked after your children was... inspiring and I knew that I liked you but if nothing more then I would settle for friendship."

There was a lapse in conversation for a second.

"So are we going to make a proper go of this then?" Harry asked nervously, "Like a real relationship and everything?"

"I would like to," Draco replied, "I finally feel ready to get back into dating and there is no one I would rather go back into the dating scene with than you. It will be safe. Though I vote we don't tell the children yet – Teddy needs time to readjust to us and the others... well I wouldn't want to make them think something is happening before we know how serious this is."

"That sounds like a very good deal," Harry said smiling.

They had reached the restaurant now and Draco had to admit that from the outside it didn't look much of a place for princesses and pirates. But on the inside he quickly changed his mind, starting with the fact that the woman who was waiting to take them to a table was dressed up as a woman with long blonde hair that hung down to the floor with plenty piled up on top as well.

"Good evening Gentleman," she greeted with a friendly smile, "Table for seven?"

"Yes, please," Harry smiled, letting the boys be led into the restaurant by the lady whilst he lifted Lily gently out of the pram and Draco folded it up against the wall.

Lily's eyes slowly fluttered open and for a second Harry thought she was about to start crying like she usually did when woken before she wanted to be awake. But instead she held out her arms for Draco who took her from Harry and settled the tiny girl on his hip whilst she clung tightly to his shirt. They entered the restaurant together and walked over to the round table, styled to look like Arthur's Round Table, to find the four boys already mucking around.

"Sir, we have a play area just over in the corner," the helpful waitress said as she arrived with jugs of squash and water. Harry took one look at the boys and said, "Alright, pick your food and then you can go and play in the play area if Draco says that's OK."

Expectant eyes turning on him, Draco pretended to give it a lot of thought before saying, "The quicker you choose the quicker you can go and play!"

There was much scrambling around with castle shaped menus until they had chosen and then the boys were gone to the magical world that made up the play area. Lily was still sitting on Draco's lap but she was too busy playing with the buttons on it to be listening at all to what they were saying and so the two men relaxed easily.

"So d'you have to be back at work tomorrow then?" Draco asked Harry.

"Yeah, I have to work from nine through to six on Mondays. Do you have work tomorrow as well I assume?" Harry asked in response, as the waitress bought a bottle of red to their table. There was a slight lull in the conversation whilst she poured because they didn't want to inform any Muggles of secrets that belonged in the Wizarding World.

"I have a load of meetings all day with various people," Draco continued, once the woman had gone, "So we're going to need someone to look after the children aren't we?"

"Oh," Harry replied flushing red, "I had sort of assumed that Scorpius would just go with my kids to Molly's house tomorrow as he's sort of part of the family now. I mean if you would rather make other arrangements that's fine but-"

"-Will she mind having _my_ child there?" Draco asked and there was no mistaking the worry about how a Weasley would react to a Malfoy child.

"Molly loves two things in life; children and cooking. It doesn't matter who the children belong to, what the parents or grandparents of the children have done, even what the children themselves have done. Anyone who is below the age of eighteen is considered a child in her eyes and therefore she will shower them with bountiful amounts of love. Scorpius will probably get extra because he's so sweet," Harry explained with a smile.

The waitress arrived then with the children's meals and Draco really couldn't believe his eyes as he took in the items before him. Scorpius' meal had been called the Round Table Burger and was clearly supposed to imitate Arthur's round table. James' meal had been called Long John Silver and had chips, sausages and peas arranged into what was a very pirate like face. Albus and Teddy had both gone for the Witches Cauldron, a green soup which was supposedly leek with various dips and bread-sticks and such which were supposed to resemble bodily parts.

"I'll go and get the boys," Draco said, getting to his feet.

The boys were sitting in the corner of the ball pit when he arrived and he was just in time to hear the tail end of their conversation; "-And Draco and Daddy won't know what happened!"

The four of them burst out laughing wickedly and Draco began to wonder what silly prank Teddy had thought up this time. He made himself known and had to put up with a few last whispers between the boys before they followed him back to the table. The meals didn't take long to be demolished and they all had a slice of the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" cake (a long chocolate thing with a face, made mostly out of chocolate sponge) before all of the boys were very tired.

Harry got the pram out but before he settled Lily in Draco stopped him and said, "OK, whilst no one is looking our way enlarge the pram."

With a quick wave of Harry's wand, two large prams appeared, wide enough to squeeze three children into them each. Usually Teddy would not have gone anywhere near the pram but it was almost eight thirty and he was honestly much too tired to care. Albus and Scorpius were sandwiched into one of the prams with Lily between them and a blanket over them whilst James and Teddy were put in the other one. It didn't take more than a minute before all five were fast asleep where they lay and the two men made the five minute walk home in silence. Just before they reached their house however, a woman and a man, much older than Draco and Harry were, stopped them to say, "You make a lovely family!"

It took a lot of effort to get the children upstairs, undressed and in their beds without waking them but the two men managed it. Finally they could go downstairs and relax without constantly having to entertain them.

**Regrettably this chapter is a bit of a filler but I can reveal the next chapter will continue where this one left off with some kissing and maybe more... ;)**

**~Charlotte xxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**PS. Happy Christmas! I doubt I'll post again until then! CHRISTMAS REVIEW?**


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